Kept In The Dark
by Tempest Wind Hollow
Summary: CHAPTER 1 REDONE! AU, shonenai, BakuraxRyou: Ryou was saved from certain death from a strange lookalike, and fell for him after the close encounter with Yami. What kind of quests does Bakura have to complete in exchange for his lover's life?
1. Beginnings

Me: sorry guys, but Wake Up has been put on hold for this (one-shot!) fic. It really was a spur of the moment idea, but hopefully will be excessively long and of course include shonen-ai.   
  
Shinu: Yup! ^_^  
  
Me: This fic was inspired by the song 'Bring Me To Life'. See, I was watching the music video, (which sucks, except for the guy's part when he says 'Save me' in the course, but whatever_) and I was thinking, 'well, this sucks. I could make such a better video. So I set my CD (Fallen) to repeat it and started dreaming up a video. Eh heh…and guess what? Yup, I changed the characters! ^^;; So that's the history on this little project_  
  
Shinu: Ryou-chans girl does not own Yu-Gi-Oh, (except for the cards, posters, ect…) but she DOES own ME! (and the storyline) eh heh, and this isn't a songfic, either! x6  
  
Me: humm…somehow I think this will go a lot faster with only one muse…oh yes! Keep in mind that I'm totally rewriting the currant situation in Yu-Gi-Oh (alternate universe) therefore, I'm only using the characters  
  
Shinu: -_-;; oh, joy_  
  
Me: ^^() hee hee, and…yeah, this will be Bakura and Ryou again. Y'see, I wanted to use another couple, as I'm already doing Wake Up with them, but nothing else would really fit. The yami had to be somewhat evil, (cancelling out Yami/Yugi, not including the Japanese 1st season) and the hikari had to be somewhat dependant on the yami (cancelling out Marik/Malik) so I was stuck with B/R. Grr…(wanted it to be a yami/hikari pair) but…just to make it a bit different, I'm using Nahkti, the ancient Egyptian Bakura (or that's what I call him, anyway_), ok? So really, it's a N/R, but whatever_   
  
Disclaimer: Mwa ha ha haa! You will never own Yu-Gi-Oh! *points index finger evilly at Ryou-chans girl*  
  
Me: *sniffle**hiccough* Shinu, make the big, bad disclaimer go away…*sniff*  
  
Warning: shonen-ai, very ooc Yami, God and Satan mentioning (no, I'm not Christian, but I do respect the faith) Flames will be used to roast all my marshmallows sitting beside me *munch* ummm, sugar…  
  
Me: yeah…and I think I'll put Anzu in this, but not as part of an Anzu-bashing thing. Sorry any Anzu-haters out there, but after reading so many fics like that you start to feel a bit sorry for her…  
  
*  
  
~Kept in the dark~  
  
"Huh? What in Hell...?" A demon stirred from his currant mid-night nap to frightened cry for help. "W-what? Uhh, h-hold on a sec..." Usually he wouldn't have cared less about something like this. Heck, for all he knew, it could just be one of his fellow demons, catching their pray for the night...but...something was defiantly wrong here...   
  
He rose in a tangled mass, for his sight was still blurry from his sleep.   
  
Unfolding his leathery wings, he lunged from his perch in the direction of the voice. Swooping over several miles in a matter of seconds, he barely noticed the wind whipping against his tan skin and unusually coloured hair. Finally arriving at the location of the voice, which was, in the middle of nowhere. The demon was stunned. Here, right in front of him, was an angel! None-the-less he looked like himself with pale skin and carefree hair. But...  
  
"Marik! You don't hunt around here, let go of the boy!" The albino ploughed right into the infamous demon, knocking his hold off of the kid. Apparently badly injured, the angel collapsed to the ground a few feet from him and lost consciousness, but not before getting a fleeting glance at the two fighting to the death (a/n: When met with territorial situations, these demons have to finish off their opponent).   
  
"N-Nahkti...why the hell do you care about the boy? It's not your hunting area, anyway! You have chosen death by challenging me, do you know that?" Lunging at the challenger with a battered knife, Marik managed to cause a fairly deep cut across two previous scars on Nahkti's cheek.  
  
Striking with his fist, Nahkti found himself pumped with adrenaline. The white-haired demon hit Marik's jaw, putting on an effect of almost suspended animation. He sped towards him, arms outstretched. The former dodged the attempted assault and seized the opportunity to kick Nahkti's shins and knee his gut.   
  
"Agh! B, bastard!"  
  
"You started it." Marik chided, sounding about a thousand years younger than he actually was.   
  
Nahkti had finally pinned Marik to the ground and had generated his most powerful energy beam from the palm of his left hand and bore it right into the centre of Marik's chest, and had successfully killed him. Flecks of blood were thrown everywhere, but just as quickly sizzled into nothingness when it made contact with the ground. He stood up and walked over to the fallen angel's side.   
  
Falling to his knees, the demon checked and healed any injuries his newly acquired guest had. Still blown away by the fact that they looked semi-identical, he threw the boy onto his back, arms around his neck, and flew back to his lair for the day. Speeding through the air, Nahkti closed his eyes. He dreamt of getting home, curling up into a ball, wings folding over his body, falling asleep...  
  
CRRASH!!  
  
"OWW!" Jerking his eyes open, he faced a wall. The door to his lair in fact, so running into it had woken him from his little night-dream (a.k.a. demon's day-dream ^^;;) Removing a stone from the wall had triggered a small opening, though large enough for him alone. Nahkti hovered slightly, wondering what to do with the angel. Coming to a conclusion, he threw him in first, then flew in afterwards, doubling back, he caught the boy from mid-fall in his arms.  
  
"Oh yeah!" He grinned at his minor accomplishment.   
  
Flying through the slowly darkening tunnel, as the opening had closed off, he reached the centre of the passage where it widened dramatically into a circular room furnished in grey and red marble. A huge pillar stood in the middle, accessorized with a pile of huge, plush cushions spread across the surface. Placing the boy on the biggest pile of pillows, he lowered to the stretch of granite beside him, exhausted from the night's activities.  
  
~Next day; 7:19 p.m.~  
  
"Are-are you awake? D-demon?"  
  
Huh...?  
  
The demon blinked twice, looking random and forgetting that his recent guest wasn't one of the Night. How long had he been up?   
  
"Yeah, yeah. I'm up. By the way, my name is Nahkti. Not demon. Though people tend to call me 'Yami'" He slowly sat up, rubbing his head. Sleeping on the unpadded ground wasn't all THAT bad. Damn, his neck hurt though... "What's your name, or should I give you one?"  
  
"I, I've been called Ryou, Bakura and 'Hikari'. But may I ask why I'm here? I thank you for helping me with that...whatever he was, but would you possibly...let me go?" He looked down at him from the pillows, with a pleading look in his eyes, sending shivers down the taller one's back. He looks so familiar...  
  
Ryou, eh? Why did that name give him a strange feeling? "First, what were you doing in the demon realm anyway? It's no place for an angel. Visa versa may I add." Nahkti didn't want to sound like he was meaning anything other then a literal angel, though Ryou was much more beautiful then anyone he had ever laid eyes on...  
  
"I, I don't know." Nahkti could tell he was lying; it wasn't hard. Ryou looked down in self-pity, only to find himself staring at the demon. He had three scars on his right cheek, though the one that crossed the others still had crusted blood on it. "What...did you...is that-?" He couldn't seem to get the right words out, but relayed the message fairly clearly.  
  
The dark one growled in his throat, though neither could tell if it was from Ryou not answering his question, or in the inquiry itself. "Fresh? Yeah, why would you care, though? You don't even know me...or is that what angels do? Worry?" This accusation had brought a slow frown to the young one's face. "Oh, yeah, one more thing to worry about. Angels are prohibited in our realm. That's probably why Marik attacked you. Meaning you'll do best to keep out of sight of the rest of us. Except the ones I permit in my lair." Ryou shuddered at his last word. God, he missed his clouds, friends, even training. But this stranger...it was like he used to know him a long time ago...  
  
A silent tear rolled down his face. Why did he have to protect that human, anyway? He knew that direct contact was forbidden among under-aged fliers. Ryou should have thought it over before running away.  
  
Nahkti was taken aback when he saw the tear. He couldn't deal with helping others and their own emotions. No, that was taken away from him the day he became a demon. But...he had to do something. Ryou looked so venerable, not to mention adorable... Wait...what did he just think?? He responded out of shock at his own foreign emotions. "Why the Hell are you crying?!"  
  
Shit.  
  
Internally sweatdropping, Nahkti narrowed his eyes to match his words, and snarled. Looking fiercer with every unintended gesture, Ryou's eyes turned into cascading waterfalls, crying over the demon's sharp words. His hands balled into fists and covered his face. The broken angel stopped himself from wailing, and satisfied himself with a barely audible hiccough.   
  
Blinking twice, Nahkti ran through his memory, trying to think of something that would calm the distressed angel. He was so... An idea popped into his head, and he slowly rose to the pile of pillows, landing beside Ryou. Biting his bottom lip, Nahkti feared the worst possible as he wound his arms loosely around the purity's waist. Pulling the boy into his lap, he felt Ryou stiffen against his intimate touch.  
  
The angel was terribly confused. What was this demon doing, trying to comfort him? Why did a creature of Satan care about him? Sighing, he shook his head to rid himself of all these questions that shattered his image of what he thought demons were like and leaned into Nahkti's touch, another tear rolling down his already damp cheek. The warmth almost seemed to spark a memory long forgotten.   
  
"Shh, it's okay. I-I didn't mean to snap like that..." Stroking the boy's silky hair and cooing into his ear to settle him down, Nahkti wondered why he even bothered. There was no way a demon and an angel could co-exist peacefully together. So why was he even trying? Even Nahkti couldn't keep him a secret forever. Sooner or later someone would find out, why risk his freedom, much less the boy's?  
  
While pondering these unsettling questions, it seemed that Ryou had fallen into a troubled sleep. He wasn't, after all, nocturnal as demons were. Humm, that's going to be a problem. No way would this demon settle for about half an hour together with Ryou, he still had so many things he wanted to find out about the unusual boy, so that left him to try and get some sleep too. Rotating him in his lap so that the angel's hands were resting on Nahkti's chest, he wrapped his pitch black wings around them both, lying down, and fell asleep for another hour or two, planning when he woke up to teach the young beauty a few guidelines to living in Hell.   
  
~12:36 a.m.~  
  
Opening one eye, the demon decided that it was a good enough time as any to wake the angel up and teach him the first instruction of being nocturnal. There was no way that Nahkti could exist in the daytime without seriously burning himself. Opening the other eye had shown him that his head was buried in Ryou's long mane. Taking in the soothing vanilla scent before anything else, Nahkti folded his wings and gently shook the boy awake.  
  
Emitting a low rumble from the back of his throat, Ryou woke up, yawning and protesting about the time. "N-N-Nahkti...it's midnight. Go back to sleep..."  
  
"Sorry, young one, but you have to get up. I can't live in the daylight, so you have to learn to become nocturnal."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"C'mon. It's not that hard. Just try to pull at least one all-nighter, ok? Bear with me here." And with that Nahkti flew to one of his lair's many coves and returned with an outfit that looked just like his own, just a bit smaller. A black silk shirt and tight leather pants adorned with a belt or two (think Yami). Yes, this would work out. In his opinion, it looked better then what he was wearing before anyway. "Here, put this on."  
  
Ryou's mouth dropped open. HE was supposed to wear THAT? He hastily took it after seeing the expression on his capture's face like you-will-wear-this-and-now. "Uh, Nahkti? Where...where do I change?"   
  
"What's wrong with here?" A scarlet blush spread across Ryou's face. "Here. I'll close my eyes and turn around. Happy?" After acting upon his words, Ryou slipped off his loose-flowing, white tunic and also turned around, blush not completely gone. Climbing into the tight-fitting pants and turning onto the shirt, he wrestled with it a bit before seeking help from Nahkti, though not totally comfortable around any demon without a shirt and not knowing whether he could trust him or not.  
  
The pre-mentioned demon smiled understandingly, but quickly turning it into a smirk before he thought the confused angel would notice. Lifting Ryou's arms straight up into the air, he paused for a second to stare at his surprisingly well-toned stomach before realizing the bright blush and bent to remove the tangled mess from the floor unravelling it. Slowly slipping it over his arms, Nahkti subconsciously rubbed Ryou's chest as his fingers past over it.   
  
Finally turning Ryou around, he tied the strings around his wings so he might still fly. "Damn, his skin's soft." Nahkti muttered under his breath. Pulling away from his touch, Ryou hovered in the air, pouting on the fact that he would have to wear such restricting clothes. Chuckling, Nahkti wondered how with every gesture the angel seemed to get cuter and cuter. "Come, little one. You must get used to it."  
  
Ryou snuck another look at the beautiful demon. Why did he seem so familiar? He didn't know him, and as far as he was concerned, never met him either. Nahkti put his question to words first. "Why does it feel like I've met you before?"  
  
"I dunno. I was wondering the same thing... I've never seen someone as beautiful as-" The angel jolted and slapped his hands over his mouth and blushed furiously. Had he said that out loud?! Closing his eyes, Ryou didn't notice the surprised look on Nahkti's face. "I, I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For. For saying that out loud... I, I couldn't help myself-" Burying his head deeper into his hands, Ryou felt his embarrassment grow.   
  
"Well, if it helps any, I believe you're more beautiful than anyone ever could be." Ryou looked up slightly. Did he really just say that? "Come now, don't break down on me..." Nahkti stroked the angel's cheek and noticed him shiver at the soothing touch. "Ryou?" He drew his arm around the angel's waist.  
  
"Nahkti..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Nothing, I just like saying your name..." He moved the hand on his face to his mid-section and leaned into him.   
  
~Flashback~   
  
A pair of Egyptians were sitting together under the canopy of one of Egypt's rare oasis's. "Bakura?"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Nothing, I just like saying your name..."  
  
~End Flashback~  
  
Ryou shook himself out of the strange vision. He had never seen that before...though the one to the left looked strangely like Nahkti and the other himself... Was it just a fantasy? Maybe...  
  
Pulling Ryou by his hands, the demon pecked his lower lip quickly, leaving yet another scarlet blush on the light one's face. "Let's pay a visit to Yami, shall we? He may be the only demon that I-we can trust with your presence here in Hell."  
  
Keeping his hand entwined with Ryou's, Nahkti flew slowly out another shadowed passage heading in his friend's direction. Knowing Yami's usual hunting territory, they kept south turning to the gate between Hell and the human world.  
  
Arriving in the heart of New York City, Ryou slowed down a bit, obviously confused.   
  
"Didn't I tell you, Ryou? Yami's a vampire. He hunts here in the city." Seeing the worried expression on his face, Nahkti assured Ryou that Yami would never hurt him, on his command.   
  
"So, Nahkti. After about 10 years, you finally decide to pay me a visit, eh?" A shadowed figure jumped from the top of the nearest building, landing beside the duo.  
  
"Ah, Yami. You always did have a good sixth sense, even for a demon. I'd like to introduce this angel, Ryou. Please leave him from your list of targets, okay?" At this, Yami raised his eyebrow. Ryou moved closer to Nahkti and clung to his arm, not sure if Yami was going to agree or not. But this vampire...seemed familiar somehow...  
  
Ryou gasped. Of course! This was the same demon that had attacked his assignment! He had panicked and instead of getting the guardian angels' supervisor, Ryou had gone to save the human himself! "Eep!"   
  
Yami realized who this angel was! The one who had gotten between him and his prey! "You." Yami narrowed his eyes. Nahkti looked desperately at the two, trying to get some sort of signal that this was some sort of twisted joke. "Why did you save her? She was nothing to you!" Yami balled his fists and took one step closer to the angel.  
  
Ryou jumped behind Nahkti, only his eyes were made visible. "Y-your wrong. S-she, Anzu." Ryou said with a little more confidence, "was my assignment. She was only on her way to dance lessons, arriving from Tokyo only three days earlier for advanced training. In the future, she'll be a world-class dancer! I couldn't just let you kill her off!"   
  
Nahkti blinked, trying to soak up all this new information. "So, you're a guardian angel? Why, how did you end up in Hell?" He didn't get it. If Ryou was a guardian angel and protected that human, Anzu, why did he end up in Hell? Wasn't that his job?   
  
The frightened angel took in a raspy breath. If he was ever going to tell Nahkti, it might as well be now. "O-okay. But Yami has to promise to let me finish my story before anything. Being attacked twice in two days isn't fun, y'know." The fore-mentioned demon snarled but nodded in agreement. He might as well hear him out. That girl would have satisfied his hunger for a near month...  
  
Nahkti moved from in front of Ryou to standing beside him with a comforting arm around his waist, urging him to tell them about his past. The hikari looked up at Nahkti, receiving a smile from him. Taking this as a sign of encouragment, Ryou began his tale.   
  
"Okay. You see, I'm not a full-fledged guardian angel yet. There were about five of us assigned to each supervisor. That was Yugi, Jou, Honda, Malik and me." Ryou sighed in defeat. "They were my best friends. They still are. Though I might never see them again." Nahkti's grip tightened a bit. "But that's my entire fault. We were all assigned to each of our humans. When a guardian angel graduates they can choose someone else, or stick with him or her. But that's just details you probably don't care about.  
  
"While still in training, underage angels are prohibited contact among humans, and if something happens that may result in serious injuries or fatal consequences, we're supposed to get the supervisor to help them out. But, there really wasn't time. Yami was too quick, and something had to be done. Like, right then. There wasn't time to get the teacher." Yami smirked. "So I did the first thing that came to my mind. I dove down into the human realm myself. Before she had seen me, I put this suspended animation kinda spell on her, so she wouldn't see me, or her antagonist. I lifted her up, and warped to her lessons, hoping that maybe the demon wouldn't have seen me. That, obviously, proved impossible. While I was one of the fastest fliers in my class, an angel's speed has nothing on a demon's."  
  
Ryou took a deep breath, trying to speak as clearly as he could. "Anzu was safe, for a while anyway. But Yami had caught up to me, and I couldn't really think straight-"  
  
"Heh, a vampire's trademark. Extremely useful in such situations." Yami commented. Nahkti rolled his eyes.  
  
"-And instead of warping back home, I ended up in Hell. Of course I had studied Hell in class before, but everything was still blurry. I guess that's when Marik had found me. You had found me." Ryou stared into Nahkti's eyes, looking, wanting him to say something. Anything. All he received was a demon deep in thought.  
  
*  
  
Me: uhh, y'know what? I think I'll make this into a chapter story after all_otherwise I'd never finish this, therefore never update 'Wake Up'   
  
Shinu: but, hey! I like this one better! I should have a part!   
  
Me: well, how about this: reviewers will vote? *turns to half-asleep crowd labelled reviewers* what about it? Should I update this or my first fic? Humm, decisions_  
  
Ryou: ja ne!! *is glomped by Erin-chan* gyaa!! 


	2. Feelings

Me: meh heh heh. the evil authoress hath returned from her drab and boring life to bring you all this here chappie!!  
  
Shinu: *giant sweatdrop plastered on forehead*  
  
Me: oooo, you know what?? I went to this little mall the other day to try and sell some of my holo yu-gi-oh cards, but got there just as the place closed ;_; well, anyways, I was with Angela at the time so we went to Subway for dinner, so on so forth until we decided to go into Wal-Mart to look for the new Battle City toys (Malik looks SOO cool!! I want him!! *blinks at snickering* Eww, stupid hentai-tachi.) anywhoo, we were wandering around the toys, looking at the other anime toys, and guess what? They had the 4th season D-Tector Digivice!! For five (Canadian) bucks!! And the packs were, like, literally fifty cents each!! (don't look at me like that, I love any kind of RPG, and Digimon are cool.XP) so I got a digivice and two packs of cards. (hey, I only had seven bucks left!)  
  
Shinu: hey, this isn't here to add tidbits of your life in!! Do the disclaimer!  
  
Disclaimer: *walks in, utterly confused* uhh, Erin-chan doesn't own any Yu- Gi-Oh characters? *shields eyes, expecting her to burst into tears*  
  
Me: well, maybe not. But I do own Shinu!!!  
  
Shinu: Dammit!  
  
Me: once again, Nahkti is what I call Bakura back in ancient Egypt.so, yeah.  
  
Shinu.right.  
  
Me: actually, I think I'll put the translations at the top, so you'll know what they mean already instead of waiting to the end.  
  
*looks up* uhh, hentai-tachi is just plural for hentai, which means pervert, In case you couldn't figure that out. Tenshi=angel Koibito=lover (koi=love) Yami/Hikari=Dark(ness)/Light (really, you're pretty lost if you don't know what they mean.) Yarou=bastard (or stupid, but it's bastard in this story, ok?)  
  
Retracting his arm from Ryou's waist, Nahkti looked solemnly at his friend. His only friend. But now, he was feeling almost a broken loyalty towards Yami, and a stronger bond with Ryou. His Ryou. His tenshi. His hikari. Why was this? He had known Yami for countless centuries. Since Egypt three thousand years ago their bond was formed. He had met Ryou only two days ago. Why did he feel such things? "ugh." Clutching his head in confusion, Nahkti tried to free his head of such confusing emotions. Was this-was this love? NO! It-it couldn't be. Demons don't-can't. Through the darkness Nahkti felt a pair of comforting arms entwine around his waist, giving him the strength to come back to reality.  
  
"Y-Yami? You.alright?" A perfect angel stood by his side, looking for something inside of him. Nahkti nodded, silently wishing that Yami wasn't here, wishing he could show affection for his light.  
  
"I believe we were talking here." Yami stood with his arms crossed, not aware of his friend's state of mind. "And we better finish this quick. It's almost five a.m. The sun rises today at 6:47. Nahkti? What's your connection to the little angel?"  
  
At this comment, he whipped around, hair flying out of place. "Why do you want to know?"  
  
"I want to insure your loyalty to me." Yami said this very calmly, as if he already knew that Nahkti would never betray their friendship. Almost.  
  
This was it. This was the moment of truth. If Nahkti truly loved this boy, he would risk losing Yami, and possibly even Ryou if he didn't feel the same attraction. Was love worth breaking the three thousand year old bond between the two? Was it worth it to let Yami get his vengeance on Ryou? Nahkti truly didn't and couldn't answer these questions that seemed to float endlessly inside of his mind.  
  
"Yami I, I, I truly did cherish our friendship-" Yami furrowed his brow, not knowing what to expect, but at the same time, it seemed he knew the answer all along. And he didn't like it. "But I've come to realize something more. More then lust, maybe even more then our bond of friendship. It's love, Yami." Ryou's eyes widened to their full extent. "And I think.I think I'm in love with an angel." Nahkti pulled Ryou closer to him and buried his nose in the silvery locks. "A perfect angel."  
  
Yami sneered. "Well, if that's all our friendship meant to you, I'm sure you won't miss me." He turned to leave. "Oh, and I'd watch out for your little koibito. He'll never be safe in Hell. And I think you know that, don't you?" He sprang onto the top of the closest building, disappearing into the darkness of the night, forever scarred from Nahkti's betrayal. "He won't even be safe from me." Yami's parting words echoing against the heavy night aura.  
  
"L-let's go home, Ryou. Yami was right. The night will die soon." Nahkti closed his eyes, enjoying the freedom that he had never felt before, in demon or mortal life.  
  
*Back at Nahkti's Home*  
  
Ryou moved uncomfortably atop the cushions, the question that had been urging to move past his lips ever since Nahkti's little speech. Taking a breath, he decided that it would be better to ask now while the subject was still fresh. "Yami?"  
  
"Yes, Ryou?"  
  
"Did you, did you mean what you said to Yami? A-about l.loving me? Or was that just to get rid of him quicker?" He quickly added on, just in case the whole thing was only a cruel misunderstanding.  
  
Nahkti was taken aback at his question. Did Ryou still place mistrust over him? ".Yes." The demon took a deep breath. "I did mean what I said. Every last word. You're the world to me, Ryou. I would never lie about something like that. Demons may have their faults, but this is defiantly not one of mine." He shifted self-consciously on his own pillows awaiting the tenshi's reply.  
  
Ryou let out a relieved sigh. So he did mean it. Maybe, just maybe, this demon could be the one. Would his friends approve of his lover being a demon? Ryou knew the elders defiantly wouldn't. Right now the small angel didn't seem to care. Drifting over to the pillow Nahkti was sitting on, Ryou folded his wings and sat down beside him, fully prepared for what he was going to say.  
  
"I love you too, Yami." His eyes sparkling with new hope, Ryou placed a hand on Nahkti's shoulder to lift him up to the demon's height, Ryou brushed his cheek with a soft angelic kiss.  
  
Renewed confidence was restored to the demon. Carefully taking the boy's temple in his hand, he pulled their faces closer together; finally placing his lips to Ryou's, Nahkti gave his love a gentle but firm kiss. Probing his hikari's bottom lip, Nahkti asked for entrance. Slowly parting his mouth, Ryou let him in. Gentlely guiding his koibito, the tenshi moved his hand from Nahkti's shoulder to the mass amount of hair. Pulling away slightly to give each other breathing room, both out of breath.  
  
Blushing, Ryou rubbed his nose to Nahkti's and snuggled into the crook of his neck, enjoying the sense of warmth and protection, like Ryou knew Nahkti would never let anything bad happen to him. Folding the pitch-dark wings over them both, he wound his arms tightly around his new koi's waist, wishing they could stay like this forever, never changing.  
  
GROWL! Both beings sweatdropped at his stomach's protests. Slumping his shoulders in defeat, the demon realized that he hadn't eaten anything in about two weeks.  
  
"Eh, that wasn't expected." Nahkti shook his head, unfolding his wings.  
  
"Maybe you should get something to eat, Yami. That doesn't sound very healthy." Ryou sat up, one hand covering his mouth to stifle the giggles that leaked out of his smile.  
  
"Think it's funny, hum?" Grinning like an idiot, Nahkti pushed Ryou to the ground, tickling his tenshi's sides.  
  
"Hahahahahahha! D-dammit, Y-Y-Yami! St-stop it!" Over-throwing the demon, Ryou sat up, ribs heaving heavily at his sides. "Yarou." Ryou said playfully, cuffing Nahkti on his right arm.  
  
"Well, I think I'll take that offer of yours up. Do you need anything?" Nahkti spread his wings, ready to take off.  
  
"Naw, I'm fine. I can just stay here. Clean up a bit." Ryou grinned at Nahkti's expression at his suggestion of 'cleaning up'.  
  
"Okay then. See you in a while, Ryou." Jumping off the pillar, Nahkti flew gracefully to the exit, happy that Ryou had felt the same way he did. Reaching outside, Nahkti was glad that day came later in Hell. He had a few hours at the least.  
  
*  
  
Watching his yami fly out the opening, Ryou surveyed the place. Smiling slyly, Ryou flew to the same crevice that Nahkti had gotten the clothes for him out. Yep, he was right. His old robe was still here. Slipping out of the tight leather pants and silk shirt, Ryou slipped the loose-flowing garment back on. "Ahh. That's better." Memories of his childhood flooded back to the angel. Doing his best to ignore them, a solitary tear leaked out of his eye. There was a very high possibility that Ryou would never get to see his friends ever again.  
  
Wiping it away forcefully, Ryou proceeded to fly around to each nook that he could find, organizing and cleaning up.  
  
"Heh, I think every time that I clean one, another little cave springs up, just to keep me working." He looked over at the cranny that he had just finished. "Huh?" Another crevice had appeared on the right side of the newly finished one. "Oh, now you're just trying to spite me by doing that, aren't you?" Not really expecting an answer from he wall, the angel looked curiously at the new cave. Something seemed to pull him in.  
  
"Well, why not? I was going to clean it anyways." The deeper he got into the tunnel, the stronger the sense of forbidding got.  
  
A crash was heard outside in the main room. "Oh no. Now what?" Ryou turned around, completely forgetting about exploring the cave. Swiftly flying to the mouth of the tunnel, he gasped suddenly. Eyes wide with fear, he crushed both hands to his mouth, realizing how loud his gasp was when it echoed off the walls of the cave. He could see two demons turn to look in his direction. Dammit, he should have kept the dark clothes on. That way he could have at least hid his feathery wings behind him. But just in his pure white robe, he must've stuck out like a sore thumb against the shaded walls.  
  
"There he is. That's Nahkti's little angel. The one that Yami was talking about, remember?"  
  
"Yeah, there's defiantly no mistaking him." The two swooped down, heading right where Ryou was at the moment.  
  
It seemed like he was paralysed from the waist down. The angel couldn't move until they were about three feet away. Not wasting any time when he did regain control of his body, Ryou darted back into the tunnel, beads of sweat accumulating on his forehead. A cloud seemed to float into his mind. Ryou couldn't think straight at all. Wait, didn't this happen before when he was up against Yami? Is it possible that these two were vampires also?  
  
Tears now streaming across his face, Ryou forced himself to fly faster, not knowing what the two would do if they caught up to him, but not really wanting to find out. Ah, shit. In the distance, Ryou could dimly see a dead end. There was little to no hope now of escape. Reaching the end a little sooner then expected, he turned around to see his followers closing in on him from either side. Lowering to the ground, hoping that they hadn't seen the wall and might run into it. No such luck.  
  
"Hah. Stupid angel. Don't any of you have endurance on your side?" The first demon said. Swooping down on him, Ryou couldn't even thrash to throw their grip on each of his arms, his mind clouded so much he could hardly even see more then two blurry shadows above him. No.this.this can't happen. Nahkti was supposed to protect him. No.no.  
  
In a last attempt to save himself, Ryou cried out, not only at his captures, but through his mind as well.  
  
"NAHKTI!"  
  
/NAHKTI!! /  
  
*  
  
Me: mwa ha ha! Me, being the evil authoress, decided to end it there.  
  
Shinu: WHA!! You can't end it there!  
  
Me: I can, and unless I want to post this sometime next week, I have to stop here. XP  
  
Shinu: *sobs* it's not fair! This story is better then mine!  
  
Me: yours?  
  
Shinu: shut up.  
  
Ryou: r/r minasan! ^^ ja ne! 


	3. Capture!

Me: I-I'm Ba-ack!!  
  
Shinu: noo, noo!   
  
Me: wazza problem?? *whips out yami's faithful katana*  
  
Ereoleanne: *wakes up* hey!! Give that back! I just got it fixed!  
  
Me: it was broken? *narrows eyes* why??  
  
'Leanne: uhh, would you believe that I had to single-handedly fend off an entire horde of insane and totally perverted dragon-people?? ^^;;  
  
Me: O_o;; lemme think...no. Now methinks you should let me use it before you wind up with an unusually sized dent in your forehead.  
  
'Leanne: you're more of a yami then I am... Oo *backs away slowly*  
  
Me: thank you. Now where were we?  
  
Shinu: uhh...*thinks for a second* crying over the pitiful fact that the only things you own are me, the plotline and a random assortment of Japanese manga.  
  
Me: oh, right. *sniffs* but...but what about the new character. I own her too!! ^^   
  
Kyokae: uh oh...how did I get pulled into this??  
  
Shinu: *sighs* join the club of exclusive muses for the author to abuse...   
  
'Leanne: *sneaks up behind her clueless hikari and steals back katana* hee hee...  
  
*  
  
/NAHKTI!!/   
  
"What??" The demon stopped in mid-chase to the desperate cry. Something was happening, and whatever it was defiantly was NOT good. "Ryou? Where are you?"   
  
No answer...why? He was sure that he had heard him a second ago, though...it sounded more like an echo-like voice. Like it was inside of him or something. Wasting next to no time, Nahkti drove through the familiar air, nearing mach 5. What was happening? Did he get caught in a tunnel collapse, or. Yami's threat from earlier found it's way back into the dark one's head again.   
  
*  
  
Yami sneered. "Well, if that's all our friendship meant to you, I'm sure you won't miss me." He turned to leave. "Oh, and I'd watch out for your little koibito. He'll never be safe in Hell. And I think you know that, don't you?" He sprang onto the top of the closest building, disappearing into the darkness of the night, forever scarred from Nahkti's betrayal. "He won't even be safe from me." Yami's parting words echoing against the heavy night aura.  
  
  
  
*  
  
Nahkti shivered at the thought. It probably wasn't even an emergency. He was probably being paranoid. Ryou wasn't anywhere near him when he heard his voice, so...so...  
  
So Nahkti finally reached the doorway to his lair, only to find that it was bonded with a very powerful brand of magic. He couldn't get inside... "No way..." The only demon in existence that could create a bond this branch of magic was...Kyokae. A very close 'friend' to all vampires. She had been living longer then the mortal world was; and had tonnes of time on her hands to perfect all of her powers. Including the creation to the undead. Yami had been one of the first...one of /her/ first.   
  
  
  
"Ryou." He whispered. The demon looked up. There were other ways into the place, but they would all have been sealed off by now. Kyokae wasn't stupid. "Dammit!!" He pounded both his fists against the solid rock, no stone coming loose from the impact. His body and wings shivered with such an anger, the aura around him hung with foreboding. The air seemed to stand still in fear. "Ryou!!!" He screamed into the walls.   
  
*  
  
/NAHKTI!!/ Ryou energy was sapped. That emotional cry took a lot more out of him then he had expected. But if it had reached Nahkti, it was well worth it.   
  
The two vampires had such a hold on him, that if he had any sort of mortal blood flowing through his veins, he surely would have died. Pulling the drained tenshi into an upright position, they both thrust their free hand near his face to place a suspended animation spell on him with their borrowed powers from Kyokae. He wouldn't be giving them any trouble while being delivered to their currant employer; Yami.   
  
/N..Nahk...ti.../ Ryou fell into a horror-filled state of unconsciousness, head bouncing on his chest as his captures warped to the pre-decided meeting place Yami had chosen earlier.  
  
*  
  
"What? That voice again...Ryou..." A demon's tear slipped out of his eye; knowing he had lost to his former friend. Ryou was gone. It was that girl's fault! If she hadn't been assigned to Ryou, Yami would never have erupted like he had tonight and gone after him...Nahkti shook off the fleeting feeling of blame. His lover...it was his own fault. He should have known better then to let him stay there alone.   
  
The wind started up again, as if to slap Nahkti in the face to get him out of his trance. "I've got to catch up to them." Though Nahkti really had no idea where Yami was, or even if it was actually him who came to personally deal with Ryou himself. More then likely, he had sent one of his many goons after him. How could he have done this?   
  
Flying into the opaque night air, Nahkti swore to kill the vampire next time he was within a 500-foot proximity of himself. He would pay, if it took him a century to do it. Ryou was closer to him then anyone, within his mortal or immortal life. Closer then his sister who was destroyed in the creation of the millennium items. And defiantly closer then he and Yami had ever been.   
  
Past the blurred gates of Hell and Limbo. Why had Yami done such a thing? Did Ryou really mean that much to him that it would totally destroy their millennia-old bond?   
  
Through the solemn alleyways of New York. Wait...what if? Nahkti knew now. Why Yami had done it. He had never truly loved. Anyone. Ever. That's why it was so easy to break their bond off.   
  
Over the tip of the CN tower. The first, last, and only one Yami had truly trusted was his servant from his life back in ancient Egypt. The one who taught him how terrible it was to be rejected and heartbroken.   
  
Skimming along the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The one who went by the name of Yugi. He rejected the pharaoh's ways of blood-shedding sacrifices and violent punishments. The pharaoh hadn't the heart to kill him, for he had still loved him somewhere buried deep within him. Instead, he was exiled.   
  
The eastern edge of Japan was begging to become visible to the immortal's eyes. Nahkti only hoped that he was right in his assumption of Yami's hideout. He had to be there...  
  
  
  
Nahkti finally arrived at his designation. The ghost town once called Domino. In truth, no one knew what ever happened. To drivers, the roads leading in were marked with detours. On foot, it was nothing but an abandoned stretch of broken buildings. An illusion of reality.  
  
Skyscrapers that once stood a grand fifty stories lay crumpled at a mere two. The first mortal, whether brave or foolish; perhaps both, had trespassed on the fields of the dead and tried to scale the ivy-clothed city tower, and was dragged down by the affixed souls of citizens to their death. No one seemed to believe the story, but none dared to enter. None but the undead.   
  
Now a sanctuary for demons, it could be called the one place of Hell on Earth. The one place you could find any demon, or at least someone who could find them for you. The one place he was sure to find Ryou and Yami.   
  
  
  
"Ryou?! Ryou, where are you??" Nahkti was barley aware of the fact that tears were welling up in his eyes. He skimmed the town, looking in all the deserted alleyways and back streets. Coming into the heart of the desolate place, he spotted one of his familiars coming out of the shady bar, apparently drunk.   
  
"Eh, Nahkti. 'Ow've ya bin?" The demon flew up and put his arm around Nahkti's shoulder for support. He strongly reeked of sake, and slurred all his words together into one unintelligible mass of syllables.   
  
"'Eard ya angel got away!" He winked in a leering kind of way. "Too bad. Sounded like a good screw."  
  
Nahkti whirled right around and clubbed the guy in his jaw, knocking him out cold. No one would ever talk about Ryou like that, and he would make sure of it.  
  
  
  
He paused for a moment. "Wait a second...where did he get that idea from?" The demon paled. "No..." violently shaking his head, he tried to rid himself of the fact of what Yami might have done to get a rumour out like that...Nahkti flew, driven by his intuition to the one spot that Yami could have possibly chosen.   
  
*   
  
"Uhhn...where...huh?" Ryou's eyes fluttered open. Where the hell was he? He tried to sit up, but... Something was holding him down. Something that was also slowly and painfully dragging sharp claws across his bare chest.   
  
The being above him stirred. "Ahh, you've woken up. Took you a whole two hours." he chuckled darkly. "Actually, that's better then my last couple of victims." Ryou shivered slightly. He should have been frozen if he was mortal; maybe that's what this person had meant. His surroundings seemed to be forged of ice and cement. Ryou tried to wrap his feathery wings around him for warmth before realizing they weren't there.   
  
  
  
"What?! Where...where are my, wings? They, they're..." The tenshi whimpered. From this point, he suddenly became aware of his angelic energy draining out of his back in place of wings.   
  
"They're gone, child. I've severed them. You may not get away, not now." The dark figure sneered, his poisoning words laced with malice.   
  
Ryou weakly shook his head in denial, trembling at his remark. "No. You, didn't. You couldn't have." He felt the tears pushing at the corners of his eyes. "I'm...I'm-"   
  
"An angel? Are you sure? No wings, no energy. What was the last bit? Innocence, was it?"   
  
"You...No...I," Ryou stammered. He was still...  
  
"Oh, but you were asleep for quite awhile. The order of events seems to go awry when you're not conscious, you know. And fate is not going to be going your way for the next eternity or so. Don't you remember me? Nahkti formally introduced us. Your koibito.. " The demon smirked. "This is, in a way, all his fault."  
  
His sight seemed to fade in and out of darkness. The world might as well as been going downhill to him. This demon, he was Yami. The first tear spilled out of Ryou's eye. Where was Nahkti when he swore to protect him from these things? He said...  
  
"What's the matter? Angel lost his wings, his safety, and his innocence? All for the sake of being a demon's lover. Was he really worth it? Your friends..? For lust?" The boy shook his head violently. No...he, he said he loved...him. Right? Ryou was getting more and more confused by each word Yami spoke; slowly drowning him. The second tear...No, his words were poison. He was just taunting him. None of this is real. None of this...  
  
"Don't worry. You won't see daylight again, anyway. You are to be sealed in eternal darkness, alone. No one to hate, or to miss if you still feel like that. There is no way out or in. You will belong to me." Yami sat up, dragging Ryou with him. He delicately pressed a finger to the light's bleeding back. "Ah, your energy is almost completely gone. It won't be long now...But I guess you'd like to know where your final resting place resides. It's a town. One called Domino."  
  
Ryou opened his eyes cautiously, vision still blurry. "But, that's, that's where Anzu was from."  
  
"Ah, so you already know what it's like? Why she probably went to New York? There is nothing left except the traces of a ghost town. Domino is basically Hell on Earth. A demon's haven. This building used to belong to my reincarnation's grandfather. The Kame Game Store."   
  
*  
  
Me: uhh, yeah. Just for people who don't get how my mind works, or don't want to, Ryou was immortal as an angel. So he doesn't have any blood, only 'angelic energy' which kinda acts like blood, but not really? Do I make any sense whatsoever?  
  
'Leanne: not really...  
  
Angela: I'll have to agree..... even though my mind works the same way... almost.  
  
Me: ...oh yes...you helped with the production of this chapter, didn't you? Here, have the day-lease of cute 'lil Shinu! ^^  
  
Angela: ^^ yay! Duel partner! Come duel, Shinu! It's okay, we'll only duel for a minimum of six hours! ^0^0^0^  
  
Shinu: O_o;; oh...that's not good...  
  
'Leanne: hee hee, oh well. At least she'll be content 'till Erin-chan decides when to write more...  
  
Angela: *runs off, dragging Shinu* bye byes! ^^  
  
Shinu: ;'( ...help...  
  
Kyokae: ha ha! Forgot about me, eh? Well, I'm the one to blame for Ryou's capture! ^^ I lent some of my powers to my sweet 'lil Yami!  
  
Yami: 0_0;; get away from me...  
  
Ryou: *sniff* If people don't review, Erin-chan might just get nasty and kill me off! I mean, look what happened last time, and I got my wings chopped off! Stupid Erin-chan...  
  
Me: hey! Careful what you say, my little muse *evil grin* Wha ha ha!   
  
Ryou: Ahh! Review! Please! Please! , *sniff* 


	4. Severed Mind

Me: well, another chapter of Kept has gone by...when I started this, I only expected it to be a one-shot, maybe even two chapters, but now I have the plotline written for about three more chapters (at least) to come! ^^ Yay, I'm so happy! Some of the people who made the continuation of this ficcie possible:   
  
VampssAmby10210: ^^ hee hee, well, I'm writing more... *shifty eyes* probably not as soon as you wanted though... -_-;; oh well. An update's an update, right? Right??  
  
Dark Peridot: yay! You're my most faithful and supporting reviewer I have! You've even reviewed my first fic from the beginning. *huggles* ^^  
  
Carmen5: yup! This update's also dedicated to you! *ducks flying pan* even though I'm a little late! ^^;; Gomen...  
  
Me: thanks to ALL my reviewers, I'm not sure I got all you people, 'cause I may have deleted a few reviews from my e-mail inbox by mistake... pwease don't kill me if you were one of them! Everyone really encourages me from just deleting the story in exasperation! ^^ Luv y'all!  
  
'Leanne: well, I'm glad you updated, anyway. This'll explain the deeper, not so obvious details not really mentioned in the earlier chapters. Example, this will be in Yuugi's perspective, but in reader's P.O.V. for the first part, and what Yami said that had every reviewer concerned with last chappie will also be answered...hopefully...  
  
Disclaimer: oh, by the way... Erin-chan doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh!...or any of it's characters...or the computer on which she types these strange stories on...or-  
  
Me: ^^;; shut up, will you? I know that I at least own my yami...  
  
'Leanne: what?! No way! *goes to sulk*  
  
Me: and Mae Shinu...  
  
Shinu: *also goes to sulk*  
  
Me: and Kyokae...  
  
Kyokae: *joins 'Leanne and Shinu*  
  
Me: ...and the plotline. Okay? *looks around* huh? Where did everyone go??  
  
*  
  
Yuugi awoke covered in a cold sweat. Shooting up, he noticed that he was huffing rather violently, and tried to calm down. "Why...why do those dreams persist on haunting me? Why now...after Ryou's disappearance..." Shaking his head he tried to go back to his more troubled sleep.  
  
Instead of insomnia, he had developed terrible nightmares, or as the elders would have called them, visions. Ones filled with demons and death. "Oh, Ryou. When will you come back to us?"  
  
*5:23, sunrise*  
  
Malik sat on the edge of his windowsill staring at the beautiful pallet of colours lain before him. Not a soul in Heaven had a better view then him and his friends, whom's numbers had decreased by one within the past week. He, who of late, had been taking many things for granted lately. His mind had bigger things on it.  
  
Looking over his shoulder, the sandy-haired angel saw one of his friends flying towards him, their tri-coloured hair whipping in the wind. "Hey, Yuugi!" Malik decided to meet the young boy halfway. Upon coming closer, he could see the tiny beads of sweat on his friend's brow. Coming closer and running his hand along the surface had revealed to the boy that Yuugi had gotten one of the 'dreams' last night.   
  
Sighing, Malik wished that everything could just become normal again. Ryou would come back; they wouldn't have been too upset to miss their exams that were rescheduled out of pity. "He meant everything to you, didn't he? You've become anorexic, having constant nightmares...look at you!" Malik backed up, tracing the frail figure of the tenshi in front of him with his hands.   
  
Yuugi looked at Malik's tear filled eyes. "I...I know, Malik! But, I just can't get him off my mind... All these premonitions," He paused with that for a second. "And there's nothing I can do!! I feel so helpless; like I betrayed him, or something...Something terrible has happened to him! I just know it! We have to go and save him!"   
  
The older angel's eyes widened slightly at his last comment. "But, Yuugi! You know what would happen to anyone who deliberately left! It's probably one of the reasons he couldn't came back!"   
  
"And you think I care, Malik!?" There were tears lining the younger one's sunken cheeks. "You knew I cared for him, but did you know how much?! How much it hurt when he dove into those clouds, knowing the consequences?!" Yuugi was trembling with desperation and fear. "I...have to save him, no matter what may come my way, for good or ill. Don't you understand?! I loved him, Malik!"   
  
Malik looked in shock at his familiar. He had...loved him? Why didn't he say anything to any of his friends about this? Gathering up all his boldness, he finally agreed to the young one's pleas. "All right, Yuugi... We'll go after Ryou. You, Jonouchi, and me. We will save him." He wrapped his toned arms around the tenshi's waist. "We will," he whispered softly into his ear.   
  
Unlinking their bodies, the tanned one hovered in the air, limbs spread apart by about half a metre. He was summoning his ka and spiritual energy. Ryou may have been a cleric and Yuugi telepathic, but Malik was, without a doubt, a sage. Head snapping back, he was covered in a blinding magenta light. As this was what happened when Malik's ka took physical form. Suddenly, his arms shot forward to surround a glowing sphere of light emerging from his bare chest, whose brightness rivalled even the ethereal light that had coated his body.   
  
When the two separated, Malik heaved over, apparently exhausted. The sphere had started to grow to about twice the size of its owner, taking on the shape of a golden dragon. Its wings were forged of the beautiful metal, though it could manage to hover in the magikal air without much trouble. The talons could easily have been a meter long each, giving it a lethal appearance while its beak and head were delicately carved diehard silver.   
  
"Tepemkau*...collect Jonouchi Katsuya, will you? We need him here." The metallic dragon nodded subtly and took off due North, the canyon region of Heaven. Malik turned to Yuugi; looking in disbelief at him.   
  
"You called Tepemkau just to get Jonouchi?!"   
  
Malik looked sheepishly at the violet-eyed boy. "Well, we would have needed him anyway. Might as well get him now while I still can replenish my energy freely." He shrugged. "Oh well."   
  
Yuugi rolled his eyes. "I guess..." Surveying the area, he got just a bit anxious. "How long will it take Tepemkau to get him?"   
  
Malik raised an eyebrow and answered coolly, "Well, considering he just took off, and the canyon is approximately an hour away from here, I think we have a bit of time."   
  
*  
  
The dark stood up and proceeded to bind his capture with energy ropes. They couldn't be broken with what was left of the boy's remaining life power. He smirked. This is one of the things Yami worked best with. Raw fear. Imbedded within a soul, it could be manipulated so easily. Ryou himself had brought up the illusion of him being ripped of his purity. But, as he had decided, it worked much better for him, anyway. The angel thought he could no longer give himself to his lover, while making it just that much easier for Yami to seal him away, for now anyway. He would eventually notice that not all of his energy would drain.   
  
It would take a while, yes. But this was an incredibly complicated enchantment, and had to be preformed flawlessly. He scowled. If Nahkti somehow managed to ruin it, Yami's everlasting life leading the undead would be all over for him.   
  
"He won't get the chance. I've seen to it." The vampire evaporated into the darkness and left the light there, bound to the floor; unconscious from loss of energy. "I will see to it." This particular spell took five years to complete, and it would not be shattered like a porcelain doll.  
  
*  
  
Nahkti stopped his reckless chase, something was terribly wrong. His skin was itching, like something had crawled into it. All of a sudden, he threw his hands around his neck and dropped to his knees; breath was near impossible. Some unseen force was forcing its way around and closing off the windpipe, and slowing pushing itself in through the minute pores in Nahkti's skin.   
  
"Gyah!" He..couldn't think...the pain, it was..tremendous. Crushing his eyelids shut, the demon tried to remember what kind of spell this was. Defiantly one from an immortal. No simple affixed soul could accomplish this. Sorcery was strongest among sages and vampires, in return for feeding off the living. Though the sage's powers came without a price.  
  
Craning his neck and ripping the invisible hands off him, Nahkti flexed his wings and crouched down, blending in with the ground itself. It was probably a substitution spirit enchantment or fusion kind of thing. Rolling his shoulders, Nahkti reverted his eyes to slits, spying out the aura of the spell's creator. To the left, a mob of demons, just younglings though. At the right, another appeared, currently occupied with his prey. No one behind or above. Where could they have gone?!  
  
Standing up, he changed back. Shaking his head at his slowness, he shouted into the night, "Kyokae! Show yourself to me! I know where you're hiding and do not wish to play games with you. Come out from your plane*!" Tensing his muscles as a light breeze swept by, he waited.   
  
From above the crumpled ruin of a building, a blinding flash seared across the sky. The middle began to glow black and soon the cosmic being began to emerge. The fine, platinum circlet that held her fiery red hair still was embedded with onyx and aligned with pearl, and the flowing kimono that adorned her figure looked to be made of silk. Raising her arms, Kyokae swept away the light with a flick of her wrists. One foot was entwined with a thin strip of liquid silver hanging from the hem of the sash.   
  
"I am here, Nahkti-ahmose-kha'y-bakura. What is it you desire from me?" Her melodic voice filled all those who chose to be seduced by her beauty.   
  
The demon scowled. "You know exactly what I want, Kyokae. You lent your powers to Yami, the leader of the undead, to seek revenge on me. Why?!" He thrust his fists subconsciously beside him.  
  
She looked at Nahkti in confusion. "That is what I do. I do not ask questions, demon. Why do you ask me this?"  
  
Nahkti shook with anger. "Because." He stared at the ground as the last tear fell. "He took my lover."  
  
*  
  
Me: ending it there so I can post it tonight...gomen, minna! The 'plane' I was referring to was her own kind of dimension. Not an airplane. ^^;; Tepemkau merely means 'best of souls'. Bit OOC for Malik, but whatever...  
  
Kyokae: *starry-eyed* Wow! What a description of me! My compliments to the author!  
  
Nahkti: *scowls* could be nicer to me...stupid Erin-chan...  
  
Ryou: *sweatdrops* well, Yuugi has a few things to say, anyway...I'm gunna go now. *drags Nahkti off*   
  
Me: nooo! My bishis! Don't leave me here alone with my insane muses and yami!  
  
'Leanne: humph. No respect...no respect at all...  
  
Shinu: *sweatdrops* R/R, minna-san! ^^// See yah next chappie! 


	5. Whisperers and the First Quest

Me: hello, and welcome to 'kept in the Dark; Chapter Five'!!   
  
Kyokae: *nods* yup, and this time I'm even more confusing... Woah, is that even possible?  
  
'Leanne: *also nods* apparently so...  
  
Me: *sweatdrops* Shut up! ^^;;  
  
Shinu: *sulks around* I still don't have that part you promised me...  
  
Me: well, *nervous silence* I wasn't going to give you one...that was to shut you up...  
  
Shinu: WHAT?!  
  
Me: eh heh... *backs away*  
  
Disclaimer: *knocks Erin-chan unconscious* Well, now that that's over...  
  
Warning: Maybe some violence, attempts at shonen-ai...not much, really. The plot's going for a little ride this chapter, so expect changes.   
  
Disclaimer: *mushroom breath* and that unconscious thing over there doesn't own the splendor of any anime show.   
  
*  
  
Nahkti stood in shame. At the moment, he had felt awfully stupid asking the enchantress why she had granted Yami powers. What had he expected to gain from interrogating her, anyway? How could she help?   
  
Kyokae floated down to Nahkti's eye level. "It's quite unfortunate that that took place. If you are looking for help, I cannot supply beyond this poem."  
  
The demon looked up suddenly. What kind poem? "Fine." He crossed his arms across his leather chest. "What's the catch?"   
  
"You never trust anyone, do you?" Kyokae frowned.  
  
"With the exception of one..." he mumbled.   
  
"Yes. That would be Bakura Ryou, correct? Don't look so surprised. You don't need to tell me his name. However, there are a couple of things you will have to complete for me. There are four quests in all-"  
  
"I knew it!" He immediately moved his arms to his sides, leering. "You never can just help someone without something in it for you, can you?! But I'm sure that doesn't apply to your dearest Yami, does it?" he added seething.  
  
She frowned again. "That will do, Nahkti-ahmose. Do you want my help or not?" He sighed and shook his head. "Alright. I'm going to tell you the first part of the poem without price. You will have to earn the rest to prove that you really do want to save and love this 'Ryou'." Kyokae rose six feet into the air, vigorously writing the first verse in the air, heavy with anticipation. They appeared like a wavering blue flame.   
  
'Who lies in ruin,   
  
Sleeps in legend,   
  
But is thinking of you?'  
  
He took the words all in, memorizing each curve they made, Nahkti didn't want to forget anything. "What? What is this supposed to mean?" She only smiled before disappearing into her own plane again. "Wait! But, what about my quest?! What will you have me do?!" Nahkti screamed into the dank alleyway.   
  
Her melodic voice once again lit the opening. "You will collect the Sheath of Mortality* for me. Bring it to me after the night emblem hides the sun. It will happen soon. You must hurry." Her voice faded into memory. The night emblem...?   
  
Nahkti sat down and wrapped his quivering wings around himself to keep out the night air. He would have to figure the riddle out first. The night emblem... Something that signifies the night, possibly?   
  
"Alright. What represents the night?" Stars, darkness... Nothing that could hide the Sun. "Okay, what /can/ hide the Sun?" The moon...? Of course! A solar eclipse. But... He stood up once again for the trip home. There wasn't going to be one for at least another fifty years. Nahkti defiantly couldn't wait that long. Maybe she meant another time...   
  
"Ah! She's forcing me into my past!" He was going to have to re-live his life before he met Yami. The legacy of the Sheath of Mortality. The protector of Aki. The immortal sword that kept Egypt from the cold winds of Autumn and Winter, and he was to claim its sheath?! "Ahh, this is going to be difficult..." He took off towards his home.   
  
*  
  
"Uhh, that's Philae, but that's way to south... Even Aswan north of it..." Nahkti was going over his map of Egypt. Or the Egypt he would be visiting, anyway. The map was huge. In fact, he had to move all his pillows to another cavern to spread the entire thing out. Walking more North, Nahkti was standing east of the Valley of the Kings and on top of a town named Karnak. Also maybe twenty centimeters from Thebes, not far. Only perhaps a day's journey. Many temples were built around the two most important cites; Thebes and Memphis, the capital city. The sword and its sheath were kept in the temple of Ashita, (tomorrow). And that was somewhere in Middle Egypt. Probably not on the same side as the Valley of the Kings, and a smaller town close to immediate reinforcements was more likely to bypass the notice of people wishing to unleash it's full fury...  
  
Kyokae had left a faerie shell on the platform. It would take Nahkti back in half an hour, and he still needed to choose where he was going to be heading. The faerie shell also contained a mirror lined with the same pattern of Kyokae's circlet, a way to contact her when he had gathered the sheath. It would drop him off at Abydos, a city surrounded by desert and on the west side of the Nile. He would be nearly a week's worth of constant travel and a trip across the Nile away from Karnak.  
  
The eclipse was two weeks away.   
  
That was hardly enough time to find his way there without being suspected of anything, and without getting lost in the palette of sand known as the Western Desert without his wings to guide him. He would look, talk, and otherwise be, an Egyptian. Himself, three thousand years ago. The Thief King Bakura.   
  
*  
  
"Uhh, wha...? What?" An angel engulfed in darkness shivered and sat up. "N-Nahkti? Where, are you?" He supported his body with one arm, rubbing his eyes with the other. Where was he?   
  
Invisible to the eye, a shadow moved along the perimeter of blackness.   
  
Ryou couldn't see, but he felt, almost sensed, a presence stealthily hidden to the lost and broken angel. "Who, who's there??" He tried to stand, but only discovered his weakened state.   
  
His energy was still draining.   
  
The shadows were whispering their own tongue, seemingly taunting the boy. Ryou slumped his shoulders. He could remember now. Yami had him captured and stole everything the angel, if he was still considered that much, had held sacred to him. His wings to lift his worries and pain, his life force and will to live, and his virginity. Ryou shivered again. "Nahkti... Where are you? Why couldn't you protect me like you said you would?" Ryou buried his head within the comfort of his arms and knees and began to cry.   
  
"Oh, but did he /swear/ to protect you, now?" The shadows...  
  
"Yes, maybe he didn't want to save you." Ryou opened his eyes slightly to see nothing by utter blackness.   
  
"Tch, it seems you were nothing but one-day thrill." Every word seemed to infiltrate and poison the young one's mind.   
  
"Tossed aside like a pair of wings that don't fly..." Ryou hunched his shoulders and let the last tear fall. Did he mean nothing to Nahkti? Were the whisperers right?   
  
He straightened his back. "No! You're all wrong! Nahkti would never do that! He!...he loved, me." Actually hearing himself say that sounded rather pathetic. Ryou had known him for what, three days? He barely knew him. How could he be so sure?  
  
The shadows grew more restless. "Nahkti, eh? Do you know who he is?"  
  
Ryou furrowed his brow. "A demon, of course."  
  
"No. He was not always a demon. You must know that. You are, after all, a mimicry of your living self." The boy averted his faded gaze to what he thought was the icy ground. "Nahkti, or should we say, Bakura, was a thief. A murderer."  
  
"What?? What are you saying?"   
  
"Shall we begin our tale, then?"  
  
Ryou nodded subtly and closed his glazed eyes.  
  
"This tale goes back nearly three thousand years ago..."  
  
*Flashback*  
  
"Hey, here comes that freak. Maybe we'll catch him this time, Azunith!" Two young boys darted out from behind a dead bush. A fair-haired child was crouching in the shadow of an oblivious man and had his arms filled with assorted goods. Fruits, cloth, some things weren't even recognizable to them.   
  
The second boy spoke up. "Hey! You there! Put my father's things down!" The albino jumped in shock and swiftly turned in the direction of his chasers.   
  
"No! Go away!" He darted into the massive crowd, drawing some glares. Looking back to make sure that he lost them in the mass of squirming flesh, Bakura couldn't see were he was going and crashed into a tall, burly man.  
  
"Boy! Watch where you're going! Why are you running so fast, anyway? Have I caught a rotten little theif?" He had run right into one of the merchants.   
  
Grabbing his small arm, the man dragged him to the two out of breath children. "Are these the two you stole from, boy?"   
  
Bakura stared at the ground. "No. Why would they have these anyway? They're the same age as me." He motioned to his loot.   
  
"Because, tramp, they're the sons of respectable merchants. You have a drunkard for a father." Bakura flinched. Why did he say something like that? He wasn't really his father, anyway. He had heard of stories of wonderful fathers, and his was nothing like them. He wasn't his father. He didn't care about him beyond the fact that he always made sure Bakura ate something each day. But he could stay out the entire day and night without him worrying. His mother was ill for most of the time and couldn't look after him.*   
  
"Yeah, stupid. Now give us our things!" The first boy punched Bakura in the nose and the second took the items he had stolen fair and square.   
  
The merchant waved the two off and glared at Bakura disapprovingly. "Nasty things, tramps are." he mumbled and wandered off. That was the first meeting of the two boys and Bakura.   
  
A few weeks after that encounter, the priests from the palace came to make the ninety-nine sacrifices of Kuru-Eruna, killing almost every adult in the small village. Bakura had watched them in horror as they slayed his mother without a second thought. That was the day he became unbearably twisted. Bakura began to steal for a living, and enjoyed it.   
  
Ten years later, he had grown into the most feared theif in Upper Egypt. After earning the title of Theif King Bakura, he went in search of the two men that caught him a decade earlier. When Bakura found them asleep together in the back of their joined shops, he kicked them awake and had finally killed them both. It wasn't as fun when his victims were asleep. Leaving their souls up to Osiris and Ammit, he left the new grave covered in fresh blood.   
  
*End Flashback*   
  
As the eerie voices of the hidden shadows ended their story, Ryou's eyes had become water-filled once more. "That is our story, little one. Our death tale."  
  
"If not for your capture, you might have even ended like us."  
  
  
  
"Our souls were consumed by Ammit and we're now condemned to this place."  
  
"Those who enter, never come out."  
  
"You will go insane from the lack of light and companions,"  
  
  
  
"And then will join us here." The small and terribly hurt angel lay down onto the freezing floor. They weren't lying. Nahkti had been a killer and eventually become one that fed off purity. Ryou had forgotten how demons fed. Consuming and corrupting innocents, for the most part.  
  
"Our time here is limited, little one."  
  
  
  
"We take our leave now."  
  
"Welcome to the Shadow Realm."  
  
*  
  
Me: Well then, that was rather odd.   
  
Shinu: you wrote it.  
  
Me: oh yeah...  
  
Bakura *coughs* in later news...the Sheath of Mortality is just some random thing that popped into Erin-chan's mind to stretch the plotline. A sheath, if you didn't know, is what you carry a sword in. The sword of Aki literally means the sword of Fall (the season) and was also some random thing that decided to visit our authoress's mind.   
  
Me: ^^;; yeah... heh heh  
  
Ryou: what a strange childhood...  
  
Bakura: -_-;;  
  
Me: ^^ well, I really didn't feel like putting an abusive dad in this time. It's been done WAY too many times, and I wanted to stick to why Baku-chan went insane in the manga/anime.   
  
Bakura: Am I still a tomb robber?  
  
Me: uhh, I'm not totally sure about that. I don't think there's any evidence of that in Yu-Gi-Oh! so I might not. Besides, you have to get onto Yami's good side somehow, and that would not be a good start.   
  
Bakura: well, neh! *sticks out tongue*  
  
Everyone: *sweatdrops*  
  
Me: oh, and during the flashback, you could read some of Bakura's thoughts. Ryou wouldn't have known these because neither did the shadows. But due to the fact that I wanted to include something to explain his behavior, I added it in. But try to think along the lines that the shadows wouldn't have known anything about his thoughts, all right?   
  
Ryou: *goes back to read* Who's Azunith?  
  
Me: uhh, I'm not exactly sure. The name just came to mind. ^^;; It's probably the name of some anime person... If anyone recognizes it, could you fill me in? That's gunna bug me now...  
  
Shinu: erm, right... Well, anyway! r/r mina! Ja! 


	6. Of Past And Present

Me: *singing a bridal song* here comes thenewchapter! Here comes thenewchapter! (slurred to fit the tune)  
  
'Leanne: ...riight...  
  
Shinu: I'm gunna go now...since I don't HAVE A PART!!! *sticks out tongue and walks out of Erin-chan's room*  
  
All: *sweatdrops*  
  
'Leanne: maybe you should give her that part...  
  
Me: neh...it doesn't fit in with the plotline...  
  
Shinu *yelling* I heard that!!  
  
Me: -_-;; anywho! When you see the '..blah...' marks *points to apostrophe*, it means that the person is thinking that. All right?  
  
'Leanne: no.  
  
Me: *sniffs* I feel so unloved...  
  
Warning: there there...*pats Erin-chan awkwardly on her back and sweatdrops* umm, implied shonen-ai (Ryou's a bit 'tied up'...) and probably some violence...not much, really.  
  
Disclaimer: wha ha ha! *still insane from the last few chappies* you STILL haven't got a hold of ANY anime! Or manga! Or-  
  
Me: *eye twitches and punches out the disclaimer*  
  
Disclaimer: X_X  
  
*  
  
Ryou stroked the cold ground with the tips of his fingers. It was all he really could do in his kind of weakened state. Though by now the liquid energy had stopped bleeding out his back, the life force he had left was very minimal. In fact, if he had tried to speak, only a hoarse whisper would have been able to leave the confinements of his throat.  
  
His whisperers were gone now. They had been for a few hours, though without company, it had felt more like days to the angel.  
  
He had, however, discovered that if he really tried to concentrate, he could see memories take semi-physical shape in front of him. So he had amused himself by watching his life play itself over until he got too tired and had to lie down again. That's were he was now.  
  
"Nahkti..Bakura...which one are you?" That vision he had seen a few days ago flashed in front of him again.  
  
~Flashback~   
  
A pair of Egyptians were cuddled up together under the canopy of one of Egypt's rare oasis's. "Bakura?"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Nothing, I just like saying your name..."  
  
~End Flashback~  
  
'Nahkti...' Another tear slipped out of Ryou's eye and splattered on the frozen earth, if that's what you'd call it. 'If you do love me, take me from here.' A second drop joined the first. 'Save me...'  
  
*  
  
"And then you-WHAA?!" A blonde angel had been teaching his kid sister how to make the potion required for her grading when a massive golden dragon stuck it's platinum head through the window.   
  
"Tepemkau!" The brown-haired girl of about fourteen dropped her graduated cylinder and ran to the dragon's side, stroking its smooth beak.  
  
"Kami-sama, you scared me... " Jonouchi had jumped on top of the table they had been working on, cat-like. Sheepishly climbing down, he shooed Shizuka to her room and scratched the back of Tepemkau's horns. "Hey, buddy. Does Malik wanna see me?" Leaving its side to clean up the gooey mess, Jou closed his eyes until his heartbeat returned to normal.   
  
"Screee, hyaaaah!" The high-pitched voice of Tepemkau rung in the blonde's ears, which he had promptly covered.   
  
"Oww, I'll take that as a yeah...hold on a sec." He walked to the counter on the perimeter of the room and grabbed his medicine pouch, holding assorted herbs and remedy mixes. "All right, den! Let's go!" His unusual Bronx accent separated him from anyone else he knew, but that was fine with him. It gave him some personality, anyway.  
  
Tepemkau withdrew its head from the window so Jou could jump through and climb onto his back. "Hyaa!" He lightly tapped the dragon's ribs with his ankles and held tightly onto his protruding neck scales.  
  
*One hour later*  
  
"Neh...are we there yet..?" Jonouchi whined. Actually, it was more of a crossbreed of a groan and suppressed sigh.  
  
"Creee.." The dragon bobbed its head slightly as the borderline of Malik's territory came into view. Jou lifted his head up and smiled. He hadn't seen much of his friends for the past few days since..Well, since Ryou had disappeared. Yuugi had been getting stranger premonitions by the day and Jou, sadly enough, just withdrew from them all.   
  
Jumping off the ka's back, he decided to fly the rest of the way. Seeing a glint of sunlight in a distant window, Jonouchi had to squint to see properly. Passing the watery gates, he dove right into the pane-less skylight and landed in front of Malik, Yuugi and, Honda, partially in a crumpled heap.   
  
"Jou! You're here! That makes four now. Five, including Tepemkau, of course." Malik added in quickly when his spirit leered at him.   
  
Yuugi averted his eyes to the floor. "One less than should be.." Malik sighed heavily.  
  
"That's why we're all here, Jou. I've already told Honda what we're planning to do. He was fine with it."   
  
The blonde angel rubbed his arm. They were going to try and save Ryou or something? That didn't sound like a very good idea...   
  
"Jou, look. I really think you should give this plan a chance." Honda coaxed, "It might mean that we get suck outside of Heaven, but we might also be saving Ryou from something really terrible. No one else saw this, but after Ryou saved his assignment from their attacker, he had evaporated. Or more like sucked into a different plane. I'm guessing he was trying to get back here, but because of some spell or such, he winded up in Hell instead." Honda was Jou's best friend, and if he couldn't talk him into something, no one could.  
  
Hell? Ryou, possibly in Hell? He mentally weighed the pros and cons. "Well, I'll decide /after/ I hear the plan, all right? I'm gunna give it a chance. For Ryou." The eldest then took his seat on a recliner on the side of Malik's room.  
  
While Honda did the actual speaking, Malik illustrated with movements and expressions, partially to lighten the mood. Yuugi just sat on his knees and stared intently at the ground, like it was the most fascinating thing.  
  
Summing everything up, Honda touched on the Yuugi/Ryou situation, but decided to steer away from that when Yuugi's face resembled a well-ripened tomato. They informed Jou of the date (which, coincidentally, was ASAP), The formation of the assorted party (Honda would lead because he had last seen Ryou), and what they could possibly encounter and the precautions they would take. One being Jou, (he was, after all, a herb healer).  
  
Jou nodded here and there, agreeing on some points and pointing things out that needed to be more accurate. "If we're going to do something irrational, we might as well be organized. Now, we don't really need to pack, but we /do/ need to leave with a good supply of basically everything." He took out his herb pouch to emphasize his point. "The canyon region where I live supplied me with everything we might ever need concerning remedies, so I'm fine. All Malik needs is his ka, Tepemkau, and a steady flow of energy. Yuugi really doesn't require anything and is probably the most flexible of our group. Honda here-" Jou motioned to him. "-is a crusader and is great at both hand-to-hand combat and at a distance."  
  
"So all in all, we have a healer, warrior, psychic and magician." Malik squinted his eyes and nodded. "Not bad..." A collective sweatdrop.  
  
Honda stepped forwards to the center of the room. "Does that mean we're all set? I mean, we don't have to pack and Malik's energy has restored itself over the time Jou took to get here." He then decided to rest his hands on the hilt of his double-bladed sword. "Are we ready to leave?"  
  
"Yuugi?" Malik turned to face his life-long friend. He was still sad, but stable and it seemed like he could manage to carry through with their mission. However long it would be.  
  
So the four balanced their energy with Malik's (he needed it for the certain non-physical hindrances soon to follow.) and took off out of the former Egyptian's skylight for the last time.  
  
*  
  
"Oww...that's the last time I ever trust Kyokae's preferred travel style..." Nahkti had just picked up the faerie shell left by the immortal and was violently warped back about three thousand years and ended up kissing sand. The sand on the boarders of Abydos, actually, so it made no difference to him. Dragging himself for most of the way, Nahkti decided that the concept of being wingless was not very pleasant, even though he could see the center of the village marked with an obelisk*.  
  
He was never so happy to see its gates so close. Since these people lived the farthest from the Nile, they were very cautious and interrogated every traveler that came their way. It was a good thing they weren't very smart.   
  
Chuckling ever so slightly, Nahkti weaved around to the western side of the village gates were there happened to be another entrance, though well hidden. At least they weren't /total/ idiots. Shoving the thorny brush-ball aside, 'Theif King Bakura' made his second debut in the Egyptian world.  
  
There was a slightly dank, slightly breezy alley/path leading from the hole to the middle of the town's main marketplace.   
  
"Gettcha freshly brewed wine hea! Just blessed by Bacchus (a/n: the Roman god of wine...) last flood!"  
  
"Tanned leather here! Prices so low they might as well reach the Underworld!"  
  
"Imported fruits! Picked straight from the Roman coast! Gettcha imported fruits!" all of which were rotten-looking...  
  
"Ugh...what a place to land..." No matter how much Nahkti wanted to yell into the depths of Kyokae's shell to take him back, he wouldn't. He couldn't. He was here for Ryou. His Ryou... So he proceeded to find the nearest pub to spend the night.  
  
*Roughly one hour later*  
  
He had indeed found a relatively nice place to rest and collect some much-needed vitals from, even if women ran it. "Neh..." They had smiled and shown him a room before the youngest one tried to make a move on him. Even if he did nearly knock her unconscious, she wasn't at fault. He had mugged a random passerby for their white-striped red cover-up and had the hood up, covering his tanned face. How was she to know that she was trying to hook 'Theif King Bakura'? Never the less, she was 'corrected' and he ended up with the best room for free! It was probably a good thing, because he didn't have any money anyway...  
  
Thunk.  
  
"Ahhh…….."  
  
After a few thousand years of sleeping on a massive amount of deformed pillows, it was near bliss to have a nice, firm bed again. In fact, he never had one, come to think about it… Oh well.   
  
Promising to wake himself up early the following morning, Theif King Bakura closed his eyes to the conscious world and let sleep take him back to his angel.  
  
~Dream Sequence~  
  
"Ahh! Nahkti, please, let me up! It tickles!"   
  
"No!" The darker of the two had Ryou pinned to the floor and had taking a liking to annoy him by running his fingers up and down the younger's side in weaving patterns. "Not until you give me it back!"  
  
Ryou had previously, relieved, Nahkti of his bat wing black silk shirt and was waving it around just out of arm's reach. That was when he was tackled and tortured until he was rendered a heaving blob of angel lying on the padded floor.  
  
Tossing the garment over the demon's shoulder, Ryou collapsed after thrashing about for a while. Nahkti then had tried to catch the stolen article but ended up missing and loosing balance, falling into the angel pinned underneath him.   
  
Both had noticed their position after Nahkti turned his head to face Ryou's, mere millimeters away from his rose petal lips.   
  
Ryou was breathing heavily now. "Nahkti..." Just by tilting his chin towards the vast darkness above them, the distance was sealed and he found his lips locked with Nahkti's own.  
  
"Mmmn..." Nahkti moved the hand that wasn't trapped with Ryou's body to cup his angel's cheek and bring him closer. Freeing his other arm, Nahkti went to slip his hand up his tenshi's loose-fitting shirt...  
  
~End Dream Sequence~  
  
Theif King Bakura woke up in a cold sweat, face pressed into his makeshift pillow. He knew how the rest of the dream went, for he had seen it before. Yami had come and taken Ryou away from him and had apparently cut his wings off because he always saw a wingless angel sprawled out on a frozen floor. It probably meant nothing, though. After all, Yami wasn't /that/ twisted.  
  
"Ugh..I wish I could just stop dreaming like that." Bakura sat up and wiped his brow. "It hurts too much..." he muttered, incoherently.  
  
Gathering his robe from the foot of the bed, the albino Egyptian walked out of the brothel and into the streets of Abydos.  
  
*  
  
Me: uh...I don't think this chapter was as long as the other ones were...oh well. I'll see about the next chappie being longer..  
  
'Leanne: you better...  
  
Me: ^^ anyway! I got the first Gravitation manga! /^o^/ Go Shuichi! (I still think Yuki's a bit of a bastard, though)  
  
Ryou: why am I so depressed?  
  
Me: *sweatdrops* why do you think?  
  
Bakura: *rolls eyes and drags Ryou out of Erin-chan's room to console Shinu*  
  
Me: r/r mina! Ja! 


	7. A Rash Departure and Realization

'Leanne: *looks around nervously* I wonder what will happen in this nutty a/n this time...  
  
Ryou: *walks in with a copy of Demon Diary* *starts to read*  
  
Me: Hey! Gimme my manga back!!! Whaaa! *runs in shortly after carrying a pyrotechnics machine*  
  
Bakura: Damn you, stupid authoress! Idiotic flame-snatcher!! *also runs in and immediately notices something wrong with the way Erin-chan is holding his flame-thingy* Ahhh! You'll hurt it! Gimme it back!! \o/  
  
'Leanne: *sighs* I knew it...  
  
Ryou: *flips page* ...  
  
Me: Ack! You'll destroy the binding, Ryou!! *glares murderously at Ryou who is ignoring her antics* *turns to Baku-kun* I'll give you your bucket of (flaming) bolts back if you'll get my shonen-ai manga back.  
  
Bakura: T-T that's blackmail...  
  
Me: *shifty eyes* so?  
  
Disclaimer: she no own Yu-Gi-Oh! *points at Erin-chan* Ga ha ha!  
  
Warning: this have no explicit language or yaoi incorporated. Some shonen-ai.  
  
Me: *uses amazing power yet again to split into two people: one haggling with Bakura and one standing sanely beside the Warning*  
  
'Leanne: whoa...scary...  
  
Me: *coughs* for the people who are not familiar with the cards, The Dark Scorpions are a group of five people, the leader being Don Zaruug. They will be mentioned in the story, if not encountered. But just to let you know that they are all cards and not OCs.  
  
*  
  
Bakura had spent the first hour or so of the morning wandering around the temple of Osiris, getting re-acquainted with the structure of the buildings. Now he was standing outside, leaning on the same obelisk he had seen coming into the town. It was alongside another of the 36-foot tall erections beside the towers.   
  
"Eh..." he sighed. Nothing new. Just the same old mudbrick and people. The King of Thieves raised his right arm to shield his eyes from the harsh Egyptian sun as he strode out towards the town square.  
  
Walking up to a man apparently quite old selling wheat and assorted trinkets, Bakura smiled and proceeded to engage the old-timer in a heated discussion about the current political happenings. The man picked right up and started to dominate the conversation.  
  
An odd glint seemed to reflect in Bakura's eyes for not even a fraction of a second before the goods closest to the theif were now in his possession and well hidden under his cloak. Nodding at something the merchant had asked, he swiftly dove his hands into the depths of his newest victim's pockets and retrieved what little copper pieces he had. Judging by the weight of it, they weren't worth much. That's one thing about the deben system, you could always tell how much a chunk of copper is worth by its weight.  
  
Bakura smiled once again as soon as the old man stopped talking to regain his breath. Tipping him off by placing his fore and middle finger to his temple and bowing his head even in the slightest, the refreshed thief took his leave.  
  
A torn piece of papyrus with some hieratic script scribbled on rolled along the ground and hit the former demon's feet.  
  
He kicked it off and snorted. "People really should be more careful." However, Bakura continued on his search for vitals.  
  
*  
  
The small group of angels burst out of Malik's skylight. Tepemkau perked its head at the sight of his master and his friends. Stretching his wings, the ka took to the air from its post on the cloud gardens.  
  
"Come, Tepemkau. We have a long journey ahead of us this time." Malik flew over to his golden dragon and wrapped his slender fingers around one of his 'ears'. "We're going past the golden gates this time." The spirit nodded his head curtly and twisted his body so to let his master take his seat at the base of his neck, the first rider's spot.  
  
Malik smiled and hugged Tepemkau for his unwavering loyalty. "Thank you." Jumping on, he waved the rest of the group over, all of whom where a little on the nervous side.  
  
Jonouchi climbed on after Malik, taking the second rider's spot, which happened to be directly behind the first. After him came Yuugi who took the calmer's place, on the base of the right wing. It was called such because underneath this wing was one of the dragon's pressure points and by stroking it; Tepemkau would loose any emotional stress for the moment.  
  
Honda took his place opposite Yuugi, the defender. Here, dragons were the most vulnerable, for their heart was near the underside of the left wing. And of course, Honda was the warrior of the band.  
  
"Hyaa!" Malik kicked Tepemkau with the rim of his heel and the massive winged lizard took off towards Heaven's gates. Their first look of true freedom lied beyond those titan barriers, and nothing could prevent them from obtaining that.  
  
As the metallic gate entered Yuugi's vision, he gasped. "It-it's beautiful..." Jou smiled grimly.  
  
"Yes, and such beauty can only balance out ugliness equal to it. Don't forget that everything was created with a balance, a rival, you could call it." The blonde gazed out to the intoxicatingly blue sky. "With land came water. Light and shadow. Humans and animals. Angels-" He turned back to the younger boy. "-and demons."  
  
Honda had been listening to the two and he knew exactly why Jou hated demons so much. His first encounter with one had jaded him.  
  
*Flashback*  
  
A younger version of Jou skipped along a riverbank. One of the rare streams that ran through the canyons, in fact. He had heard that an infamous demon fledgling was caught and was being held captive somewhere near here.  
  
"Oh, hello there, Jonouchi! What brings you here today? I'm afraid Yuugi isn't with me today." Suguroku lifted his cap to Jou.  
  
The blonde rocked back and forth on his heels with his hands behind his back. "Naw, I didn't come to see Yuug today, Gramps." The elder smiled. "I wanna see the demon that ya caught. He sounds cool!"  
  
A solemn expression filled Suguroku's face. "Now, Jou. You know that everything is in balance. Angels are good, and, well, demons aren't. They're evil for the most part." Little Jou looked crushed at being denied the chance to see a real, live demon.  
  
"But Gramps, I really, really wanna see one! Please? I'll be careful!" he pouted.  
  
Suguroku rolled his eyes. "All right, all right. I still have some work to do here, so you'll have to go alone. Don't go near the cage, all right? He's around those trees."  
  
"Oh! Thank you, Gramps! You're the best!" And so Jonouchi skipped off into the area marked off with tape. Ducking underneath, he crawled to the foot of a gigantic, cube-shaped holding area. Ignoring the warning not to get close, the angel walked right up to it and held onto the bars. "Helllooooo.... Anybody home? Demon, where are you?"  
  
Nothing.  
  
"Hey! Ya in there??" Little Jou started to shake the bars.  
  
A lightning-quick shadow passed over the trees enclosed and rested in the canopy of a birch close to the angel's spot. "Come to harass me, little one?" He dropped out of the tree and landed on all fours in front of the astounded holy-child, his wings folded carefully over his back.  
  
"What, haven't you ever seen a demon before?" He shifted uncomfortably under the young one's intent stare. "How old are you?"  
  
"T-ten..."  
  
"I see. Just a youngling then." Jou gulped. The demon...he didn't look evil at all... Brownish hair falling around his pale nape and flopping over his brow, covering part of his ice-blue eyes. If only his wings weren't so dark, he would be an angel.   
  
"What's your name, boy?"  
  
"J-Jou, sir...who are you?"  
  
"Seto. I'm thirteen"  
  
Jou reached through the cage to try and touch his demon. "Se-to..." The demon smiled.  
  
"If you open the door, we can play together, Jou. Won't you let me out?" Seto sighed whimsfully. "I've been so lonely here with no one to play with..."  
  
The angel perked up. Someone to play with? Suguroku's voice echoed in his head. /They're evil, Jou./ Naw, this one couldn't possibly be evil. He was too...perfect...  
  
So Little Jou happily opened the lock to a hidden door and swung it open. "There you go!" He smiled. His demon was going to play with him!  
  
Seto walked calmly over to him and smirked. "Idiot. Don't you know never to trust a demon you don't know?" The jovious expression of the angel disappeared. "Fool." The demon harshly backhanded Jou and took off into the air.  
  
*End Flashback*  
  
Honda shook his head. What a thing for a fledging to go through. Ten ethereal years (a/n: about fifty years in our time) after Jou was reborn into Heaven. He hated all demons after that.  
  
Tepemkau dove underneath the clouds and out of Heaven.  
  
"We're coming, Ryou." Yuugi murmured. "Hang on."  
  
*  
  
The prince of the undead exhaled sharply. "Tell me again why you couldn't locate Nahkti?"  
  
A wraith was bent down on one knee before his liege. "He-he has seemed to have dissipated from our realms, s-sire. We have searched the entire earth and Hell equally, but to no avail. Unless he's in Heaven, your demon doesn't exist in this plane anymore. G-gomen, sir, Yami-sama..."  
  
The vampire rubbed his temple tediously. "Alright, Freval. You and your team are excused." He glared murderously at the shuddering wraith. "But never, /ever/, fail me again. Or your core will be replacing Nahkti's. Got that?" Freval muttered a frightened understanding and ran off.  
  
Yami sighed in exasperation. "If they were any stupider..." 'But never mind that. I need to find Nahkti.' Like they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself.  
  
So the vampire lord took off in search of his sub-prey.  
  
*  
  
~Everyone, this is Ryou. He will be joining our class today, so treat him as a guest. Here, you can sit over there beside Honda, Malik and Yuugi. Jonouchi in front of them will be able to answer any questions you may have." The ArchAngel had a hold of the timid, albino's shoulder and pushed him off towards the small group of friends.  
  
"Hello, Ryou. My name's Yuugi." A short boy with multi-coloured hair stood up and led Ryou back to his seat.  
  
"H-hi."  
  
"Wow. You shy or what? My name's Malik. Welcome to the Eleventh-year class." An Egyptian boy extended his hand to the new angel, who took his hand uncertainly.  
  
"Why are you only here for a day?" The blonde whom the teacher had called 'Jonouchi' jerked his thumb to the seat behind him. "That's yours."  
  
Ryou felt his face burn from all the attention and took his seat, folding his pale hands over his robed lap and folding his wings over his back. "I was transferred from the sixth heaven to the first to see if it would suit me better..."  
  
"Ah, I see." The final angel of the group sat behind everyone else. His hair had been gelled into one, massive spike near his forehead. "My name's Honda, by the way. Will you fly with us at break?"  
  
"I-I guess, if that's what you want..." Ryou turned in his seat so he could face all of them.  
  
"Hey, no need to be so scared, Ryou. We're your friends now." Yuugi cocked his head slightly to the right and smiled. ~  
  
Ryou's memory flickered then, and finally disappeared into to never-ending darkness.  
  
The sixth heaven was where they trained their DeathAngels. He had been shunned and pushed around for not even being able to lift the soul of a deceased bird from its body without throwing up. Ryou couldn't stand corpses of any kind. That's why he had been transferred. He was too...weak. The teachers just gave up on him after a while and sent him to the disciple's heaven so they could see if he could study to be something else.  
  
But unknown to them, there was another reason besides a weak constitution Ryou couldn't have been a DeathAngel. It seemed to him that every time he had touched something dead, he could almost see whatever it was move again. Blinking, a stray tear, it didn't matter. It was not quite so noticeable to others, but Ryou was sure that they had come alive for even a moment before he had to rush to a washroom.  
  
The angel sighed. Much good it did him now. Stuck in the 'shadow realm' with next to no energy.  
  
The darkness inside of his spirit was growing. It was slowly consuming everything the small being had left. Memories disappearing with every once of energy he used up, isolation from the worlds. But what hurt the most was being so far away from his lover. Ryou had decided that Nahkti hadn't meant for this to happen, for if he did, he probably wouldn't have bothered to save him from the clutches of that other demon to begin with.  
  
He was so confused, though.  
  
Something had struck him as odd earlier. When Yami had awoken him from his exhausted slumber and trapped him here at the beginning, he said he had taken away everything that made Ryou an angel. That would have meant that he shouldn't have /any/ energy left, but that wasn't the case. Though a miniscule amount, there was still some there. He really did take his wings away, that was apparent, and the last bit, energy, depended entirely upon the first two requirements of an angel. Wings, of course, and innocence. Since the first one was broken, the second part was all he had left.  
  
Ryou smiled for the first time since he last saw Nahkti. Yami hadn't raped him, he couldn't have. The angel let out an eerie and hollow laugh.  
  
"Yami! I know you can hear me!" Ryou felt a sear of vitality spread through his weakened body. "I want to let you know that I still have hope!" He flicked his snowy hair out of his tear-stained face "You can't destroy me, not like this!" The white tunic he was left with started to bellow, as if pushed by an invisible wind. "I STILL HAVE HOPE!!"  
  
Though it went unnoticed by the screaming angel, a ripple of light tore through the intense darkness.  
  
*  
  
Me: and so ends the chapter. Oh, and if anyone's confused about the 'sixth heaven', I decided that there would be seven in total, and that the sixth one was associated with death. Please don't tale offense if it's entirely wrong, I just made it up. ^^;;  
  
'Leanne: ...yeah...  
  
Ryou: ^^ Erin-chan couldn't add this in the beginning author's note, but this chapter is dedicated to UnknownDarkMystery for being so supportive! *glomps* Arigatou!!  
  
Me: what he said. Thankies for the great review(s) (wow, 2!!) 


	8. A Scorpion's Barder

Me: meh...  
  
'Leanne: meh what?  
  
Me: I can't make anymore mushroom soups now. The disclaimer blew them all up.  
  
Angela: keeps contradicting herself  
  
Me: ?? what the hell?  
  
???: walks in, shaking a bit umm, hello? I'm, I'm here to take over for the other Disclaimer. He was, uh, knocked unconscious last time...  
  
Me: cackles you scared of us? You should be. We're very scary people.  
  
Disclaimer: erm, ErindoesnotownYu-Gi-Oh! There I said it! Bye! runs out  
  
Me: aww, he left too soon... Tormenting the newbies is always fun...  
  
'Leanne: -.-U but that's how you get on their bad side and then when they learn that they're necessary, they start to boss you around!  
  
Warning: walks in and looks around so he came, then? Well, you're going to have to wait a bit longer for the yaoi, but don't worry, hentai fans! Never give up hope!  
  
Me: yeah...  
  
As the light grew and grew, Ryou couldn't help but to take notice of the blinding tear in the shadows.  
  
It started as a small wrinkle in the darkness, and then shuddering from the amount of remaining black, it exploded into a ribbon woven of light stretching in every possible direction. Though he didn't know how, Ryou felt almost like this piece of mind he was just handed was connected to him, and not in the sense that he had brought it on. Something related to his mind...  
  
As if on cue, a surge of memories flooded through him, causing the angel to shout out and fall onto his hands and knees.  
  
"So, so...many...too, too much-" and he fell unconscious right there and then, lying on the frozen Terra.  
  
Memory  
  
An Egyptian boy ran blindly down the marketplace street, trying to find sanctuary, any at all, from the palace soldiers that crashed in the door to his mother's old inn. Actually he had no idea if the guards were still keeping up with him, but turning around was a risk he was not going to take. Unfortunately for him, this caused the adolescent to grow more and more curious with every pounding step in the dusty ground. "Meh, couldn't hurt..." His unusual white hair whipped around as he craned his neck to look over his shoulder, thus running into someone else and ending on top of them.   
  
"Ack! So sorry, sir! Please don't hurt...me..." As he gazed upon the man he had fallen on, he felt his throught choke up and he gasped. The stranger's hair...silver.  
  
The man in the red and white-striped cloak seemed to be thinking the exact same thing. "...Boy..."  
  
When the teen heard his husky voice pass over his ears he immediately scrambled off and tried to stand up, without success and fell down again, though this time their heads had been closer. "I.." was all he could manage before running off.  
  
Rushing down the alleyway once again, he knew that he would never be able to forget the stranger because of his beautiful silver hair.  
  
End Memory  
  
Ryou moaned when he woke up and found himself on the ground once more. The boy...it was him. It had to be him... He could hear all of his thoughts and everything. But that man...it was Nahkti, he looked so similar.  
  
Ryou had a minimal amount of time to this paradox out before he was sucked into another memory.  
  
Memory  
  
"Bakura! Bakura, help me!" I screamed. It was no use. He had been drained already. I knew I would be, too if no one came. "Help me..." Bakura had lost all his memories by now... "Please..." The priest's magick was too strong. I for one should know...  
  
My shackles strained as I decided to just hang limply from the dungeon wall.  
  
End Memory  
  
This time the angel sat up limply. That particular memory...he understood it...that was right before they were separated. For three thousand years...they had been apart. Now he knew what that feeling had been when he had first seen Nahkti, it was recollection. They were together, even so long ago. And now the same scenario had been brought up. He was trapped. Nahkti was gone. He didn't even remember what had happened after that flashback.  
  
One thing was pestering him, though. How he had kept calling Nahkti, Bakura. That was his Egyptian name. That was also what the shadows had called him. Was that his true name? He sighed.   
  
"Bakura..." The name had a funny effect on his tongue. Like he had said it so much before, it rolled off without strain from the harsh syllables.  
  
Ryou looked up and stared at the searing light rippling slightly. It was so close...  
  
Crunch  
  
Pushing up off the frigid ground he had come to grow so accustomed to, the half-angel stood up, teetering and swaying. Ryou was staring at the ground, fighting back tears of vengeance and loneliness, still clutching his arm. "I'm coming, Bakura..." The albino suddenly jerked his head up and glowered at the light. "I'll reach you if you can't get to me." And with the amount of determination his voice held, it sounded like he could have done anything.  
  
"Eeyah-!" Ryou charged at the light, going shoulder first. The only sounds that would've been heard were the angel's scream and heavy footsteps on the ice-like floor.  
  
Approaching it, the stream seemed brighter than ever, and almost blinded Ryou. That is, if he cared. All he could think of at the moment was breaking free of his personal Hell.  
  
As the warm light enveloped and threw him from the Shadow Realm, Ryou prayed to God that this would work.

  
  
Bakura had been collecting the food and various other things for his trans-desert journey for the last two hours. "Gwaaa!" He rolled his shoulders and rubbed his tear of boredom away. Maybe a nice nap would keep him awake for the trek. Chuckling lightly at his own brilliance, Thief King Bakura headed off in a definite direction looking for a spot of shade.  
  
Rounding a corner out of the alley he had been occupying, the white-haired Egyptian stopped, now totally lost. 'O-kay! Last time I'll ever run off in a place I have no idea were everything is! Crap...'  
  
Without warning, another albino tore down the street, looking behind him and muttering something under his breath.  
  
"Huh-" was all that came out before Bakura was toppled over and underneath the boy.  
  
"Ack! So sorry, sir! Please don't hurt...me..." What?! He looked exactly like Ryou! Tanned a bit more, mind you, but...  
  
"...Boy..." Ryou...he was back? Had he escaped Yami's grasp?!  
  
"I.." and the Ryou-look alike took off down the same alley he had just exited as if he were being hunted by the devil himself.  
  
Bakura closed his eyes. No matter how similar he looked, he must believe that they're not the same. Whether Kyokae had fixed this, or if it had just been tapped from his own thoughts, he mustn't rely on his sense of sight alone. Not when his heart told him otherwise. So the shocked Thief King shifted from his back to leaning on his elbow and pushed his body from the blistering sun-kissed sand. He still needed to find just a bit more natron, anyway before he went on his way. And he knew exactly the person he would have to go to. An old commerade, one might call him.  
  
Whipping his cloak around him once more, Bakura set out to find his man.  
  
While passing silently through the crowds of people and keeping a sharp eye, the ex-demon scouted for any of the Dark Scorpions. Any one of them should have done, for they would know how to get what he needed.  
  
Fortunately, as Bakura had been passing by a small wooden arch, he could make out a person sitting in the shadows. 'We've just found a scorpion.' As though a shadow, Bakura slipped inside, careful not to make any sort of a creak on the shallow floor of a tunnel connecting to the frame.  
  
Once inside, he could make out a man widdeling down a wayward piece of wood, perched on a lone stool in the middle of the room.  
  
"State your name and your intentions. I wouldn't like to distract myself from my work if unnecessary."  
  
"Cliff, the trap remover. Long time, no see." He looked up, not in shock, but if only pleasant surprise. "Miss me while I was gone? Or still sore over the fact that I haven't joined you and your entourage?"  
  
"No remorse, old friend." Cliff stood up to reveal himself fully. Classic brown hair cascading over his neck, forehead and glasses, a studded brown leather muscle shirt that showed off all his well-defined abs, a protective band of chestnut brown cloth and red pinstripes covering from his elbows to wrists on both arms, a ruby-red pair of pants with both a star on his belt and hard leather over his groin, finished off with boots that mirrored his armbands, reaching up to his knees. But most importantly of all features, his right arm was branded with a black scorpion running up his shoulder. It was the outfit of all Scorpions.  
  
"I have a favour to ask of you and your team."  
  
"Do tell, Thief King." He set aside the developing wooden animal onto the stool.  
  
"I need safe passage across the western desert. I'm going to Karnak for the Sheath of Mortality."   
  
Cliff raised his eyebrow. "You tryin' to top your records, or somethin'? No fool would rush in like that 'cause some guy took somethin' from ya." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Or 'cause some gal asked ya. Is that it?"   
  
Bakura glared. "I assure you, that is not the case. Now will you not help me or at least take me to someone who will?"  
  
Cliff sighed and shook his head in disbelief. Bakura was really going to carry out this crazy plan. "Don't stress yourself, Bakura." The albino rolled his eyes at the casualness of his friend. "We'll help you across the desert and supply any distraction you might be in need of. The guards around there ain't the useless thugs that hang around here. You know this, right?"  
  
Bakura smirked. "You underestimate me. It's my business to know."  
  
"We'll leave now, then. Come, there is a safer passage to our lair through the tavern." And so both thieves left the small hut and slinked though the passing crowds.   
  
Arriving at the bar door, Cliff assured Bakura that he personally knew the bartender, otherwise they wouldn't have stayed there for so long. The pair instinctively headed around back to enter from the personal quarters of the owner. No need to arise suspicion.  
  
"Oi! Mie-ladn! Going down, alright?" A deep grunt replied. "That's an affirmative." Cliff lead him to another back room that held nothing but a couple smashed clay bowls and empty sacks lying on the warmed cobblestone floor. In fact, the only thing that really stood out in the dank room was a wooden trap door, apparently leading down to another storage room.  
  
"And this, would be our headquarters at the moment." Cliff motioned for Bakura to follow him down once he had lifted a lock attached to the plank, exposing mud brick wall supported by beams.  
  
"Hey, Cliff! Who's behind you? Have you really gone and done it this time?" Light chuckling was heard emitting from a doorway at the end of the staircase. Bakura leaned in a bit closer to his friend to whisper in his ear.  
  
"What're they talking about?" He didn't have to ask how they saw both of them. The dancing light from a candle could seek out any shadow of almost any form from a distance.  
  
Cliff shook his head subtly. "They're always joshing around that one day I'm gunna bring down the entire outfit by bring in different people. Other than Zaruug himself, I bring in the most candidates." Bakura nodded his head in partial understanding and decided that he should probably leave that topic off for now because they were both inside the dimly lit room now.   
  
All that you could have seen with an untrained eye standing from the doorway would have been lofty shadows lurking around the randomly-placed candles around the room. But what should have been seen, and what the Thief King saw are both entirely different. With his eye, he could seek out a woman sitting high up with her foot dangling from a lump of something or other, a young teen, maybe fourteen or fifteen, sprawled out on the ground, a hulking giant melted into the far-right corner of the room and yet another door leading North.   
  
When Bakura affirmed that this was everything in the room and no surprises could leap out at him, that was when the door slid open to reveal a burly, muscly man with a patch over his right eye and blue-grey hair. "Bakura," he barked softly, "You came. I was wondering whether you were going to show up ever again after the last tomb raid we went on."  
  
The albino nodded. "I need a favour to ask of you and your team-"  
  
"He's going to Karnak for the Sheath of Mortality." Cliff butted in, earning a glare from the thief king. He wasn't going to ask so outright! Well, that's Cliff for you.  
  
"You're serious? Well, if you have an idea in your head, you should go with it. I assume you will be needing journeymen to go with you across the western desert? No one could make that trip on their own."  
  
"Always right on target, aren't you, Zaruug? Well, I was hoping you could accompany me." Bakura walked from the doorframe to the center, or what could have been assumed the centre, of the room. "I leave tonight. Will you come with me?"  
  
"No doubt, I will. But the rest...no, that's their option." He waved his arm to the rest of the group. Bakura frowned and received several smirks.  
  
The woman was the first to come into the light. "I will come." Meanae the Thorn. Her Arabian accent and brilliant red sash around her throat charming any enemy they needed out of the way without a fuss. But of course, her thorned whip taking out the ones who did.  
  
The boy stood up next. "It would be an honor, Thief King." Chick the Yellow. A leather strap around his shoulders held his selected weapon; a gigantic mallet.  
  
The titan took three, huge steps so he stood next to Cliff. "I follow our leader into anything." Gorg the Strong. His spiked club, not to mention his size intimidating even the most confidant of warriors.  
  
Cliff was the only one left to agree. "Well, what's in it fer us? I mean, you get you little prize and all goes great for you, but what about our trouble? Travelin' the desert ain't some small side quest. I want to know what we git."  
  
Bakura smirked. "You take me for a fool, old friend? Why would I only bother to take the sheath in an imperial temple?" Cliff raised his eyebrows and smiled sadistically.  
  
"I'll come then."   
  
The light-haired man snorted and tapped his foot once on the floor. "We'll be leaving now, I hope?" he inquired, hoping to finish this quest as soon as he could and get one step closer to reaching Ryou.  
  
Don nodded and then, the pack of six thieves left the tavern for the last time.   
  
Natron = kind of salt only found in the desert  
  
Me: meh...wanted to get a P.O.V. form Yami this chapter, but that'll have to wait. Ah, but what a twist, eh? I mean, concerning Ryou and all... shrugs shoulders  
  
Shinu: huffs I don't see what's so special about it...  
  
Me: ;; you still haven't gotten over the fact that you're not in the story, aren't you?  
  
Shinu: to put it bluntly, yes.  
  
'Leanne: shakes head R/R, mina. 


	9. When in Karnak

Me: Mwua ha ha ha ha!!!  
  
Shinu: ...  
  
'Leanne: -.-U she got back from Anime North 2004 (Congress Centre, Toronto)  
  
Me: yeppers! =D the cosplaying went great (T-T all the pictures I took turned out black... I forgot the freaking flash button! .) It was a bit weird, though. Angela was Malik and I was the only one there cosplaying Ryou and was glomped 12 times, we signed 2 people's pants (O.o;;) and so many people took pictures of us, I lost count. . The items turned out really good, though. I also got a big poster of Baku-kun! ;D It looks so cool!  
  
'Leanne: ...I wonder if she needed to breathe through that paragraph...  
  
Shinu: I hope so...  
  
Disclaimer: (sighs in defeat) I have just discovered something. She doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, but she does own the plotline and all original characters...  
  
Warning: aww, poor baby! :P  
  
Disclaimer: -  
  
Warning: and yes! The first quest is dangerously close to ending! =) Maybe even this chapter! We can always hope... But not much else except maybe some shonen-ai and things like that.  
  
Me: ...whatever...

* * *

The small army of angels had been flying through grey mist-like stuff for a while now. Tepemkau had somehow miraculously navigated through flawlessly, no one could really tell each other why. It didn't really matter to them, anyway, as long as they eventually managed to get through. But what seemed to be one of the main topics on everyone's mind was the time taken. Especially Honda.  
  
"C'mon... It has to take less time than /this/ to get through this damn plane!" Honda sighed apathetically and slouched limply onto the golden dragon's back.  
  
Jou rolled his eyes. "It's called Limbo, Hond'. It takes a while."  
  
"Hey! It seemed to take Ryou no time at all..."  
  
"Yeah, but think about this, Honda." Malik decided to say, "He was at the Guardian's Window as well, where we had our classes sometimes. He had a direct passage." The young angel closed his eyes matter-of-factually. "Of course, it wasn't for /his/ use, but the sensei's." Yuugi frowned at this.  
  
You have to understand this particular part of the Guardian's Window. Each young angel trying to become a formal GuardianAngel is assigned a human to look over and protect, give him or her a push in the right direction every now and then. But since everyone is assigned a different target, they see different things through the gaps in the cloud. Ryou saw New York because that was where Anzu was currently. However, anyone else looking through that particular space wouldn't have seen NY, they would have seen where ever their human was. The sensei, of course, can see the entire world through that space. That's basically how it works in a nutshell.  
  
It was about then that the fog disappeared and they were on the material plane for the first time since they had died. And the place they ended up in, well, that just happened to be Yuugi's, Honda's and Jou's place of death. So it came as no surprise to find themselves to be at a lose for words.  
  
The town of Domino.  
  
Malik looked curiously over to his two friends with gaping mouths. "What's the problem? Something the matter?"  
  
Yuugi spoke up for the rest of them, since no one else could seem to find their tongues. "Domino..it's gone..." Malik blinked.  
  
"What does that have to do with you three?"  
  
"It's our point of death." Jou croaked out. It was standard not to talk about your death in Heaven, so Malik wouldn't know anything about Domino (a/n: remember, this story is alternate universe). "And..it's just gone.."  
  
"So that must've been what killed us. The Ghost Effect."  
  
"A tiny apocalypse..."  
  
Malik blinked again. "What, didn't you already know where you died? I know I did."  
  
Yuugi grimaced and they all shut up immediately. Yuugi had happened to be one of the 'special cases', as they were referred to on the holy plane. The first time he had died, it had been in unrest, so the boy had chanced loosing his place in Heaven for the chance to be reincarnated, and so it was granted. He was reborn into Domino City, 1996. Where he died just as unsettling, but Yuugi had given up on finding whomever it was he was searching for, and just went to Heaven. This was commonly referred to as 'Giving up the Ghost', and not very respectable nor talked about. Because one thing can go wrong when you want to be reincarnated: you run the risk of becoming demon.  
  
Tepemkau nudged his rein draped across his neck in an effort to get going again. Going /here/ of all places was against everything his instincts had to tell him, but he would anyway, for his master and rider.  
  
"All right, all right." Malik stroked his ka's bull-like neck. "Let's get going again, all right? No time to spare." Yuugi murmured a silent breath of relief and everyone else nodded curtly. "Hyaa!"  
  
Tepemkau dove through the misty air into the heart of the city.  
  
)(  
  
The Dark Scorpions and Bakura had been traveling for about a week now without many eventful happenings. They had met a caravan of palace men two days ago, but managed to stay out of sight. No one really felt much up to a good fight yet, anyway.  
  
Bakura was getting restless. The eclipse was just five days away, and he still had to get there. He sighed, not only to relieve him of an approaching headache, but also to reassure himself that they were traveling as fast as they could. The only way to speed up would have been to go on ahead, but that was definitely out of the option. Not even the great Theif King Bakura could have crossed the rest of the Western Desert, locate and enter Karnak and manage to steal the sheath, alone.  
  
But something struck him funny just then.  
  
(Flashback)  
  
Cliff raised his eyebrow. "You tryin' to top your records, or somethin'? No fool would rush in like that 'cause some guy took somethin' from ya." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Or 'cause some gal asked ya. Is that it?"   
  
(End Flashback)  
  
How could he have known? Bakura frowned. He hadn't told anyone of them the motives behind stealing the sheath, yet Cliff had correctly predicted that something was taken from him. And that Kyokae had asked him in the first place.  
  
So how did that work?  
  
"Hey, Bakura! Stop lagging!" Chick's youthful voice startled Bakura out of his thoughts and brought him back down to Earth. "You'll be happy to hear that I can see the Nile just over this upcoming sand dune! Come and look!" Ah, yes. He had forgotten. While Chick may be deathly timid in closed spaces, open land was his kingdom. Henceforth, he was their scout. A scout now standing on top a /very/ steep dune, and waving down to all five of them at the foot.  
  
Bakura grumbled and kicked a stray stone into the sand. A couple of grains fell, but nothing significant. Good, at least he wouldn't break his neck attempting to climb up that damn pile of sharp dust.  
  
Another stone flew into the space right above Bakura's. "So, you gunna climb or what, Theif King?" Bakura rolled his eyes at Cliff whom had his thumbs hooked into his studded belt and foot raised slightly in the air.  
  
"Yeah, yeah.." He ran up halfway before he realized that this was as far as he could go on two feet. So, muttering curses under his breath, Bakura knelt on all fours and climbed up. But what he saw was worth any climb.  
  
Ra had just begun to sink into the golden-tinted river, and almost every pastel colour imaginable was present. Crawling across the stretch of sand, illuminating the glassy water, reflecting off all the multicolored stones at the bottom...it was just breath taking. And all Bakura could think about as a lone tear escaped his eye was the fact that Ryou wasn't here to see this beside him.  
  
Maybe it was the awing sun, or remembering what he was truly here for that made him do it, but just then for the first time in literally three thousand years, Bakura wasn't shedding tears of sorrow.  
  
Zaruug had scaled the side of the dune without disturbing Bakura and stood beside him. His grayish blue hair churned in the slight wind coming over form eastern bank of the Nile and the patch over his right eye sparkled in the sun. "We can't linger here, Bakura. Ra is setting much too fast for us to make camp here. We must find a suitable cavern for the night." Don rested a hand on his friend's shoulders for a moment and then left down the hill.  
  
Through the next couple of days, the Dark Scorpions plus one had made their way across the Nile in a reed raft and they were nearing the small town called Karnak. Only over that next hill... Just a couple more hours...was all Bakura heard from Chick. But then again, if he wasn't there, no optimist might have meant no crossing the desert. No one else was saying much, anyway, so conversation was welcome.  
  
When they finally did reach the City of Temples two days later, it came with much relief. Don Zaruug and his team fare welled Bakura and they hadn't seen each other since they had arrived primarily. Bakura was now attempting to circle the temple of Ashita.  
  
"Hey, you! What's your business here?!" A watchman shouted from inside the rows of stone pillars lining inside and out.  
  
"Meh.." People had been shooing him away from the temple ever since he had arrived. That was definitely not what he had planned. If they grew suspicious of him...it could mean that he would never get the Sheath of Mortality...and that meant-  
  
It was getting very late now. The stars overhead had begun to light the sky like frozen dragonflies and illuminated all of the building tops. Bakura had to find a place to stay for the night. And that's what was bothering him. By tomorrow, he would only have until nightfall before the eclipse, and the symbol of Kyokae's deadline.  
  
So the albino sighed and headed towards the outskirts of the town to find a good, comfortable place to rest the night.  
  
)(  
  
"Get..get away form me..." cried a young boy, maybe only ten of age. He was in the cold embrace of some creature that seemed to have jumped right from his old fairy tale books. Pale, white skin and tri-coloured hair wearing a completely leather outfit. The boy was at first intrigued until the man had pinned him to the wall with clawed hands and bore his enlarged fangs.  
  
Yami sighed impatiently. "If you wouldn't move so much, it wouldn't hurt." You see, Yami wasn't stupid. Though the jugular was plentiful, you would cause your victim to kill themselves by struggling too much and ripping it out. And that meant wasted blood. So instead, he had always pierced their wrists with his fangs. However...this particular little boy was being quite the hassle. Yami had almost thought of putting him and his parents out of their misery by just killing the kid.  
  
But no.  
  
He was just going to suck half his blood, like everyone else's. No exceptions.  
  
"AHH!" Yami reeled back off the kid in mental pain, clutching his head. The small boy took advantage of his attacker's weakness and ran.  
  
'I can't think..at all...' The prince of the undead's mind seemed to be tearing apart. The never-ending darkness of Yami's soul was being split...light was escaping...  
  
/Yami! I know you can hear me!/  
  
A reflection of Ryou standing in his mind flickered in front of his eyes.  
  
/I want to let you know that I still have hope!/  
  
Yami fell to the floor and teleported unwillingly back to the heart of Domino City.  
  
/You can't destroy me, not like this!/  
  
'What..what's going on...' The vampire squirmed on the once-warm floor of the Kame Game Store.  
  
/I STILL HAVE HOPE!!/  
  
And that last verse rang through and ate away at Yami's emotional binds. Ryou was out of his control now...  
  
"No..all that I've worked so hard for...it's all gone..." Now he had taken the place of his hostage on the frozen terrain of the Shadow Realm, without a way of escape. Not even he could escape himself.  
  
)(  
  
Bakura woke up the next morning with a kink in his neck. He had spent the entire night thinking over everything that could possibly go wrong, and now everything seemed so impossible. 'How can I possibly do this?' he had asked himself over and over in his mind.  
  
But then, everything he had ever done in his two lives, mortal and demonic, seemed impossible, yet he had done nevertheless. Like earning the title Theif King. Or beating Marik on nothing but a rush of adrenaline. And meeting Ryou, though it did seem like the second time.  
  
/Git up, Bakura. This ain't the Theif King I knew./ Cliff's familiar voice rang through Bakura's ears.  
  
So he stood up off the ground and dusted himself of the dirt because he had just reminded himself of something. That he had made a promise to himself before he ever accepted Kyokae's quest. A promise to save Ryou at any cost. No matter what the circumstances were, including self-pity.  
  
'I go tonight, then.' Bakura made the second promise just then.  
  
As the day went on, everything surprisingly went according to plan. No one grew suspicious around him and by keeping his almost-unique white hair and signature triple scars out of site, no one recognized him either. It was near the end of the day when things decided to go a little out of whack.  
  
"Hey, stranger. C'mere for a moment." A deep grunt emitted from a darkened stall to Bakura's left. He sighed, as people seemed to be doing this all day. The residents of Karnak were pretty paranoid, if you asked him. Bakura went over, not expecting much, though still keeping a fair grip on his hidden daggers and such.  
  
"Your cloak reminds me of someone I used to know...let me feel its material." Now Bakura was getting a bit more aware of his surroundings as he neared the peddler. The stall had a blackened storage room that led out into a small backstreet in between two buildings. The merchandise all had something to do with rouges. Weapons, tools, picks...  
  
When Bakura had gotten close enough to smell the dirt off the man, not only a handful of his white-striped red shawl was grabbed, but his elbows was also caught from behind by two middle-aged palace men.  
  
"Hah! Theif don't look so big now, eh?" Shouted one of the people in his blind spot.  
  
'What the...' Bakura tensed up. Not that this would be a problem to get out of, but now he'd have to go straight for the sheath. By tonight, everyone would know who, and where he was.  
  
By back heeling the guy in his gut, and swinging rather awkwardly, Bakura managed to free himself of the two behind him. Now all was left was his original man, whom was currently yelling for more backup. Ok. Not a good thing.  
  
"Hyaa! Begone, knaves!" Meanae the Thorn swung down from a roof with her rose whip on the ready and red sash bellowing wildly behind her.  
  
Meanae nailed the first guy square on his head with her foot and then turned to take out three more approaching rapidly. "Bakura, why didn't you call?" Her exotic accent rose above the fight.  
  
The tanned albino jumped out of the way of a punch and came down hard on their head with his elbow. "I guess I didn't need to, now did I. You came so quickly."  
  
Another fell by her thorned whip. "You go to the temple. I'll keep them busy here." Bakura nodded and dashed off towards the city monastery grounds. Since everyone had heard the commotion down in the marketplace, no one but a couple guards on duty should be left in his way. That was a good thing. The guard part, however, was not.  
  
Avoiding an elderly couple, Bakura could begin to see the outer premises of his temple and began to sprint faster.  
  
A pack of five palace men sprang out from Ashita's gates armed with composite bows and spears. While Bakura was contemplating in his flight how to handle them, a hulking shadow passed through the street and knocked all five of them down to the ground at once with a huge mace.  
  
"I was informed you might be in need of my assistance. I came immediately." Gorg the Strong held all of them down with two feet and one hand. Bakura nodded his thanks and headed straight into the temple.  
  
After he passed through the pillars before the entrance, a gigantic courtyard with the sandstone spires he had seen earlier lay before him. No other exit than the one about fifty yards ahead. A few surprised monks were paralyzed at their posts while the resident Theif King passed their midst.  
  
Past the doors were rows of endless halls, meant to slow down and confuse penitraitors. However, Bakura had seen nearly the same layout in the Shrine of Osiris in Abydos. So he had no problems here. Weaving his way through twin rooms, he had finally reached the inner sanctuary of Ashita, where the Sheath of Mortality was kept.  
  
Sneaking through the doors, Bakura was able to see most of the rooms from where he was standing. The actual shrine was straight ahead, though surrounded by fourteen separate rooms, some connecting, some solitary. What these rooms held was no secret to anyone who lived near a temple. They were the living quarters of service men sent to keep out thieves like him.  
  
Bakura's cloak swept behind him as he strided confidently towards the Sword of Aki. No need to be trying to hide himself, for there wasn't anywhere to blend into safely and still reach the very room of his goal.  
  
"Hey, you!" For the second time that day, Bakura was called over by ambushers and he rolled his eyes. This one apparently wasn't quite as subtle. "Stop right there!" A soldier ran out of the furthest door to the left, taking his scimitar from his belt hanging loosely. And of course, this upset drew the rest of the soldiers.  
  
'Crap...' The thief nimbly ducked his first swing and jumped above the rebound. He was searching franticly in his pockets for something to slow down the mob and let him pass freely.  
  
He pulled out a piece of white fabric and immediately recognized it as belonging to Ryou. Bakura remembered he had picked it up when searching for any clues in his lair.  
  
"Grk" Bakura felt his eyes swell and morph to red orbs with thin, black slits. His shoulders rolled back and his back began to burn unbearably where his wings should have been. That was right before he feel unconscious to the floor before his attackers.  
  
(Dream Sequence)  
  
Nahkti was hovering above a blood-red room on his wings in a night black turtleneck and matching pants. His skin was pale and the length his hair grew, you could have sworn it was just doubled. "What the...?" He raised and rubbed his hands to study them further. Yes, they were definitely real...  
  
Through the gap between his hands, he could see a young, wingless boy lying asleep on the floor. "What?" Nahkti threw down his hands and swooped down to him.  
  
"Nnnn.." The albino kid groaned softly when he was turned from his side onto his back. It was! It was Ryou!  
  
But his wings...why were they gone?  
  
For some reason, this dream seemed to cloud Bakura's sense of being, so he couldn't think fast. It was almost like someone had given him a sleeping pill, or whatever humans used to fall asleep.  
  
(End Dream Sequence)  
  
Bakura snapped awake just as fast as he had fallen into sleep.  
  
Cliff swung overhead while pelting several guards with sharp rocks and a slingshot. "So yer awake now, eh? Took you long enough." Bakura sprang up off the ground and tried to focus on the wild battle in front of him. Zaruug was going three-on-one using his short sword and random kicks, and Meanae was just arriving through the door covered in scratches and cuts from the earlier scuffle.  
  
"Go now, Bakura!" Yelled Don Zaruug. "Get the sheath and run!" Bakura bit his lip and nodded firmly.  
  
Most of the sword's protectors were already occupied with Bakura's backup, but one or two managed to slip away and went after him.  
  
"Crap..." Bakura muttered under his breath. Only seven feet away...five...three... Bakura launched himself the rest of the way hoping to gain ground from his pursuers, and partially due to the fact that he had tripped over his immeasurably long cape. 'Gotta make it...no other way...'  
  
Through the temple windows, you could see that the sun was beginning to be covered with a gigantic, black object.  
  
His fingers passed the sword of Aki and touched lightly on the sheath.

* * *

Me: wow...what a cliffy, eh? :P Yes...I'm evil  
  
'Leanne: -.-;; if you say so...  
  
Me: by the way, if anyone's confused, the Sword of Aki was still in its sheath when Bakura touches it. He just touched the hilt or whatever it's called... (shifty eyes)  
  
Shinu: gimme a part! gimme a part!  
  
Me: no.  
  
Shinu: :'( I'll cry...  
  
Me: :o you sound like that kid in Spirited Away... ANYways! :o} There are a couple things I'd like to get in reviews, that is, if you want a kawaii picture! :D /Constructive/ criticism, whether all four of the quests left should take as long as this one (five to six chapters), and what you like best. ;l  
  
'Leanne: you sound like a survey card...  
  
Me: . whatever...don't forget! Piccies!  
  
chibi Ryou: ja! (r/r!!) 


	10. How To Become A Vagrant Spirit

Me: =/ well, what to say...  
  
'Leanne: (is enjoying summer holidays reclining in a random lawn chair in the middle of Erin-chan's room) Perhaps you should give us your explanation for a late chapter this time...  
  
Sun: (crashes through the window and gives 'Leanne an evil sunburn and nasty tan lines for the rest of her 'mortal' life) ha ha ha! Fear my wrath!!  
  
'Leanne: nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Me: (takes the opportunity to run out of the room carrying the laptop) whew...  
  
Warning: (was about to enter the room and sees Erin-chan run out) (turns around and follows) what was that about?  
  
Me: '=l do you really want to know?  
  
Warning: actually, now that you mention it, no. But anyway. Yes! It all ends this chapter!  
  
Me: ?.? The story wasn't scheduled to end for quite a while...  
  
Warning: no no. I meant the first of his quests.  
  
Me: ah.  
  
Disclaimer: (kicks a random rock)  
  
Rock: (protests loudly and promptly bites Disclaimer's ankle) do not kick an ankle-biting pocky-eating rock! Bad for ankle's health and well being.  
  
Disclaimer: O.o;; yeah... well, you know the drill. No own Yu-Gi-Oh! Do own plotline and original characters. Go away now. (kicks rock again and cackles)

* * *

The podium on which the Sword of Aki was kept creaked and swayed from the sudden impact of Bakura body slamming it, followed by several soldiers trying desperately to keep this thief from taking Karnak's idol of protection. The only thing that kept the harshness of Autumn and Winter from their doorsteps.  
  
Thief King Bakura clenched his fists tightly as if the sword and sheath pair was his last lifelines. He knew that the Eclipse was almost complete, and his faerie shell was still on his will-hold-anything belt around his waist. The only chance for him was for someone else to get the shell for him.  
  
Cliff the trap remover was by his side in an instant, much to the guards' shock. "I'll get it!" and he immediately began to fumble with Bakura's strapped belt. Fortunately, the conch shell wasn't near the back and was very easily reached.  
  
Bakura nodded his thanks, for he was busy trying to kick the men scrambling around him and the sword. 'I only need the stupid sheath, bastards! Get offa me!' echoed in his mind. He had no time to ponder why Cliff knew exactly what he needed, and certainly wasn't complaining.  
  
"Here! Just yell inta the thing, there ain't no time left!" Cliff shoved the opening of Kyokae's shell in Bakura's face.  
  
"Now Kyokae! Take me back now!" he bellowed. Listening to his voice ring in and out of the twisted passage inside, a great, glowing vortex surrounded him and drowned out his call with its winds. The walls keeping him separated from the main temple shone with a blinding white light and then just disappeared. Bakura was left on his hands and knees starting blankly into nothingness with the Sword of Aki and its sheath under his palm.  
  
"Well, look what ya got us inta this time. This is /just/ great."  
  
This intruding voice in his Nothingness caught Bakura's attention instantaneously, and forced him out of desperate curiosity to turn around.  
  
"C-Cliff..?" He sounded weak and a whole lot younger than he had been for a while. In fact, looking down at himself in shock, Bakura found him sitting in the same red and white cape, just at least ten sizes too large. And his belt was slung around his shoulder, not his waist. The scars where gone too. His wandering fingers, much reduced in size, told him that much.  
  
"Ya, waddya want now, kid." Cliff the trap remover looked just the same as he did in Egypt. He groaned and flopped down onto the ground beside Bakura. "Well, we definitely have the time ta spare. Tell me o' your trip back to Egypt, my old - well, somewhat old, friend..."  
  
Bakura snuffed at being called young. "And just why should I tell you, /Cliff/?"  
  
"Because we have a lot of time ta waste sittin' here. Your gal won't show up for a while..."  
  
"Hurmph! She's not /my/ gal! I don't have any girl. They annoy me, anyway..." He rolled over onto his side facing away from his uncalled for companion and rested on his elbow. "Now you tell me, how is it you know of Kyokae? And how you knew to get the shell for me?"  
  
"Let's jus' say it's a gift given to me from an ol' acquaintance of mine. Besides, you probably wouldn' know wut I was talkin' about."  
  
"Oh, I think you'd be surprised," and young Bakura once again rolled over onto his back with his hands and arms behind his head. "At what I could understand."  
  
"Heh! Ya know, that sounds awful odd coming from a tiny, eleven-year old shrimp." He pushed his falling glasses further up his nose. "Do you really want to know?"  
  
A chunk of silver hair fell in front of Bakura's face and was blown away in a breath. "Why would I ask if I didn't wanna know?"  
  
"Because yer young 'n stupid. That's why."  
  
"Hey! It's only my body that shrunk! I'm still the same Thief King Bakura!"  
  
"Nahkti-ahmose-kha'y-bakura. You have my sheath?" A kimono-clad Kyokae appeared out of the whiteness and the relaxed albino immediately sprung up off the ground, holding the sword duo in his right hand. "You have called, after all." She mimicked a snake's head with her hands and a window of mist was created from her aura and she peered into it. "I see the eclipse has finished. And considering I had a few things to take care of first, you had probably finished on time. Am I correct?"  
  
Bakura nodded sharply. He took the Sword out of the Sheath of Mortality slowly, as if it was a nostalgic item of his. But there was no hesitation when he tossed it expertly to Kyokae. "Now what of your side of the bargain?! You promised Ryou back to me, Kyokae!"  
  
Staying far out of this conversation rapidly developing into a violent argument, Cliff kept his tongue stilled. 'So she still looks the same. Interesting.'  
  
"You may have forgotten, but we had agreed to /four/ quests in all. You have taken the first small step into achieving that. However, you had completed the requirements for obtaining the second verse of my poem. Are you ready, Thief King?"  
  
His eleven-year-old body growled, but obeyed.  
  
Again, her free hand flew through the stale air to create many cerulean-tinted flames, each twisted into a single word.  
  
'When does time stand still  
  
But speeds ahead of the clock  
  
Not knowing when to stop'  
  
She sighed with her eyes closed, giving her the look of an exhausted mother. "I was planning on giving you this one later, but seeing as you're so adamant to go after your love, try this: You will retrieve his physical self."  
  
Bakura narrowed his young, crimson eyes. "What do you mean, 'physical'?"  
  
"What I mean is," She was getting slightly annoyed at him, now. "-he is in two halves. Soul half and body half. You should have encountered his soul between lapses of your memory world." Their child-looking company was getting more and more confused. "Yes! I had you merely re-live a memory of a time past for your first quest. The only things you could truly interact with were my shell I gave you, and Cliff. Can you comprehend me now??"  
  
"What?! That all happened before?!" All she gave him was an acid leer. "Oh." He turned to read the words again. "And what's this supposed to mean, then? No clues, hints, this time?"  
  
Kyokae could feel her eyebrow twitch. "No. No hints. Because I just told you /exactly/ what you're supposed to do. Do you understand?" Bakura nodded again. "Good. I take my leave, then. Oh, and Cliff? Next time, I expect you not to interfere."  
  
The neglected thief laughed. "Depends wut's in it fer me." Kyokae rolled her eyes; very un-entity-like. "Dun worry, I'm goin' back ta my time, 'nyways." Cliff the trap remover tipped his glasses to signal his departure and evaporated. "Take care, Kyokae."  
  
She smiled back, and snapped her fingers, triggering an enormous change of scenery. Everything, including Kyokae, the sheath, and even himself, started to blend and mix together. The colours dominated the Nothingness in an instant, and only a small room was left behind with red walls and a full-grown demon.  
  
What it held was of more interest to the now pale again Nahkti. Like before, a white-haired boy lay seemingly unconscious on the floor. The same one that had been in his 'dream'.  
  
"Ryou?! Ryou, is that you??" Nahkti could feel his eyes start to grow warm and wings shudder when he fell through the air to go to the other's side.  
  
"Nuh..." He turned over from his side to his back, and for the second time, revealed himself as the angel Nahkti, well, Bakura had saved from Marik in the beginning.  
  
The tears that had welled up in the demon's eyes before were slowly inflaming red lines around his iris. "Wake up, love. Please, wake up for me?"  
  
Ryou's eyes flitted open to a slit; he was apparently still very tired. "Ba..kura?"  
  
Something tugged at the demon's heartstrings when his angel called him that name from his past. But he definitely wasn't in a questioning mood and contented himself by embracing Ryou tightly, which lifted him off of the ground. And the feeling that both received from their mutually meaningful hug was pretty close to the best thing either had felt before.  
  
"You came... I was so worried that you wouldn't come to save me..." Ryou cried into Bakura's shaking shoulders.  
  
All of Bakura's heart wanted to scream out 'I need you, I love you. Don't ever leave me alone again', but for some reason from a long time ago, nothing could escape his lips save for: "Now, what kind of lover would I be if I didn't devote every second I could possibly put into saving you?" This light-hearted line cracked their grief-stricken faces and they both began to giggle. Then as the moment took over, it turned into a well rounded 'ha ha', followed shortly after by uncontrollable laughter. They were together again, they had made it!  
  
The shared tears of happiness ran down their faces and Bakura's mind took to some things he had meant to ask from the times he had seen Ryou in his visions or dreams. "What happened to you, Ryou? Why do you not have your wings?"  
  
The former angel pressed himself further into Bakura's chest and shoulder, still hiccupping with tears and laughter. "I guess it was kind of pointless trying to hope you wouldn't notice, eh?" He let out his last 'heh'. "Yami happened to my wings. He left me bleeding of my magickal energy, and so I'm left with almost nothing. That being, I'm not considered FullAngel anymore." A hollow smile from Ryou's eyes told what needed to be said without a voice.  
  
This struck Bakura's fragile heart with a vengeance. Not only did Yami take his angel away from him, but he took his wings and energy stuff?!  
  
"Damn him...straight to Hell..."  
  
Ryou had a slight worry hanging in his heart. A thought that had bothered him while he had lain in this crimson room for so long. Perhaps Bakura would like him less without his wings? That caused him to cling even more to the body of his lover.  
  
This concept leaked through the connection both shared and knew of only subconsciously. And when it reached Bakura, it came as a huge shock to him. So the demon gripped both of Ryou's arms tightly and pulled him off of himself in order to stare him in the eye. "Ryou, I could never love you less for such a superficial reason, please know that..."  
  
A lot of the stress held in the angel was released by hearing the promise, but still some lingered in his watery eyes.   
  
Bakura then pressed their lips together with a fierce passion and slid his hands from holding Ryou's arms to locking their fingers somewhat loosely. The rush of heat came running up Ryou's spine and was the cause for him to loose strength in his back and he slid, bringing Bakura down on top of him. His hands were moved above his head and out to the side.  
  
They parted and Bakura put his forehead onto Ryou's own to whisper to him. "I could never love you less, no matter what." and he brushed his leather wings up against their sides.  
  
Ryou's emotions were pushed to their limit, and overflowed through his eyes for the second time that night. He was pulled into Bakura's warm and welcoming lap and he clung desperately to his black turtleneck. He could feel arms wrapping around his waist to pull him closer.  
  
They stayed there for quite a while until Bakura decided to break the piercing silence that had fallen over them.  
  
"You know, I saw the most beautiful sunset when I went to Egypt." Ryou said something incoherent because it was muffled by Bakura's chest. "It was right above the Nile and hit every different coloured stone on the bottom. The light bounced off of every grain of sand, and illuminated every dune peak. And you know what the only thing I could think of then?" Ryou shook his head, digging his nose further into his shirt. "That you couldn't see what I could."  
  
After Bakura had finished retelling his sight Ryou had just lain quietly for a while, thinking. "Why were you in Egypt?"  
  
Through his entire journey in his homeland, Bakura had forgotten to tell Ryou of it. He just thought that maybe Ryou would already know about it for some reason. So he began at the beginning with his first meeting with Kyokae. He told him about reaching Egypt and finding the Dark Scorpions, the trip across the Western Desert and crossing the Nile. Getting to Karnak and going through the Temple of Ashita for the Sheath of Mortality and the Sword of Aki. Bakura flew back to where he had come in and the sword was still hovering in the air to show Ryou. He saved the second quest for last.  
  
"...and then Kyokae changed wherever we were to this room."  
  
"...so, this really is only my soul? And you have to get my body for the next line of her poem?" Bakura nodded his head twice. The angel took a second to really look at Bakura since he got there. He ran his fingers down Bakura's pale right cheek; where his old scars used to reside. "I generally though that when one goes to Egypt, they /get/ a tan, not loose one. Your hair's much longer as well." Then he looked down at himself. His clothes had completely changed from wearing his white Training Uniform, but a sky blue shirt and white denim pants. "I wasn't wearing these same clothes when I was in the Shadow Realm."  
  
"Shadow Realm..?" Bakura asked blankly.  
  
"Where Yami sealed and left me. But you know, that might be where my body is, and if this is my Soul," he placed a hand on his chest, "-then you might only be Soul too."  
  
"Why do you think that?"  
  
"Simple, we can interact. You know that a Ghost, or Soul, can't touch, feel, or hear a mortal, and visa versa. Angels and Demons only have limited interaction with them, but they still can't touch. They would pass right through one another. Only two Ghosts can actually touch and sense." Bakura shook his head up and down slowly, trying to figure out exactly what Ryou had said.  
  
"Then a Soul would probably pass right through objects too, right?" He moved away suddenly when he got an idea and pressed his hands into the floor.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
"Then this room must be made of the same material as souls! Then maybe only Ghosts can pass in and out of here! But then..." All the hairs on Bakura's head shot straight up in the air and he could feel his stomach drop to his knees, on which he was currently perched upon. "I'm a Soul too!"  
  
"Kyokae sent you here, though. She wouldn't leave you with no way out. I came through this light I think I had created. Anyways, you have a body to go back to, and I don't, yet." He paused and surveyed the room again. "We need a name for this place."  
  
"What about 'Pretty Boy's room'?" Ryou scowled. "Then how about just the 'Soul Room'?" This went over all right with Ryou, and the name stayed.  
  
But something seemed to be nagging at the back of the demon's mind. Something that was apparently of some importance.  
  
"You have to go on your quest soon, don't you?" Ryou asked with not more than a slight tone of disappointment mixed with his voice, and Bakura smiled solemnly.  
  
"If we want to get your body back, yes. And I think I should go soon, too. It was late afternoon in Egypt, and if the timelines are the same, then night will be falling soon. That would be the opportune time for me to search. And I have to find a way into this 'Shadow Realm' as well."  
  
As soon as Bakura had said he needed to leave, parts of his soul and sword began to drift away into a new breeze.  
  
Ryou whimpered and clung to the other soul's rapidly departing arm.  
  
"I'll come back for you, I won't take long," consoled Bakura. He took Ryou's hand in his, (as nothing of him was left now except for that hand and most of his face), "Rest now, you'd need it."  
  
)(  
  
When Bakura came to his senses once more, he found himself lying spread-eagle in the middle of the map he had been examining prior to his trip back in time. Groaning, he pushed himself up with his bruised wings and rubbed his head.  
  
"Uhg, it feels like I have a freaking hangover..." He turned around only to find the source of all his aches and pains: Kyokae's faerie shell! (which he promptly glared at and nearly chucked it at the closest sharp object before he remembered that he needed it to talk to Kyokae). This caused him to draw his attention to the humongous mess he had forgotten about.  
  
He muttered something or other under his breath in Demonic to summon a couple animated statues to clean up. While the stone gargoyles and Cerberuses were flying around like miniature tornadoes to various parts of his lair, Bakura sat in the very middle of his pile of pillows to collect all of his thoughts that were confusing him every time he tried to sort them all out. Ones about his past, and some about Ryou, and Yami.  
  
'Why is he so Hell-bent on taking revenge on me? What did I do wrong?' His thoughts continued mostly on that train of thinking and led him to suspecting something that may have happened in the past. Perhaps he still has memories yet to unlock from his days walking the Earth as a mortal? Kyokae had probably just shown him one of many, and Bakura doubted she would give him any more now that he had received one.  
  
But Bakura also wanted to complete this quest as soon as possible, so he left his cavern in the statues' care. The only demon he knew of that could help him find another plane was another from his past in Egypt. So Nahkti-Bakura flared his wings and took off.  
  
"Next stop, the forth ring of Hell; Kaiba Seto's residence."

* * *

Me: (faints, then wakes up immediately) OMG!! That took /forever!!/ to finish! (faints again)  
  
'Leanne: (even she's dead tired helping Erin-chan out) I desperately need a new host...  
  
Me: ;o/ well, that three-week trip to Ottawa might have something to do with it. And now I'm going to Winnipeg for a week! . But I'll try to type the 14th chapter of Wake Up as soon as possible... (shifty eyes)  
  
Chibi Kyokae: ahg!! I've been turned chibi! Life as I know it is over!! TwT (= crying cat face) ja...


	11. One Friend More?

Me: hello again, mina-kun! 'w' Happy to see me in such a long time? No? Aw... TT-TT

'Leanne: (bows) thank you, Yume charm o' happiness for your awesome review! It was very much appreciated. :D

Me: yes, well, I'm not completely sure if anything will get in the way of this chapter's production, but I think we all hope not.

Disclaimer: (is still arguing with the rock) no own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Shaman King nor Yu Yu Hakusho! Go away! :O

Warning: (surprised to come into the room with no one screaming bloody murder) Shonen-ai, chance of deaths, etcetera....

Me: now, where did we leave off last time...? Oh yes...

* * *

"What do you mean, I need an invitation to speak with the prince?! Let me in right now!" Bakura was having a bit more trouble getting into the Fourth Ring of Hell then he had anticipated. He had forgotten that Seto was the prince of the place. The extremely paranoid demon prince, at that. Then again, the Angels had kept him captive for several years in his childhood. But still...

"I'm sorry, sir. But he has strictly ordered us not to let anyone in without his permission." Two Guards were struggling with keeping Bakura from busting into the place.

Now he was getting just a /bit/ angry with them. "I'm sure these rules are normally great, but you obviously don't understand! I HAVE to talk to him, and whether your necks are in my way or not, it's not going to matter much." One snorted, trying to look unintimidated, but you could clearly see the fear dancing in his eyes; playing off their heats. "Now, are you going to be good, and let me pass? Or would you rather face death?"

They gulped, but took their twin rapiers to their hands.

Upon seeing their harmonious response, Bakura rolled his eyes and prepared for combat.

"What is the meaning of this??" Kaiba glided down in between Bakura and his servants; demanding an explanation.

Bakura blinked back his surprise and stood up straight. "I was merely asking for admittance to speak with you... Kaiba."

The brown-haired demon scowled. "That's Kaiba-sama to you, Bakura."

"And that's Bakura-kun to you, Kaiba." he retorted with sickening sweetness.

With that serving as breaking the ice, their old rival/friend relationship was reborn. Seto motioned for the guards to let him pass, and led him inside to his private quarters.

"Now, what did you wish to speak to me about?" Seto sat himself down behind his human-styled business desk and pointed Bakura down to rest on the enlonged one-armed couch.

Bakura, sitting down and helping himself to the tray of rum candies set on a silver tray, started to explain himself to Kaiba. After getting through telling his purpose for going after Kyokae's items and giving reason for wanting Kaiba's help, he finished what he had to say and sat silently, waiting for his answer.

Seto, as the bureaucrat of Hell, took Bakura's proposal into account, and sorted out all of the possible risks involved with everyone. As an old friend (and rival), he did sincerely want to help him out, and felt as close as a demon could ever get to feeling pity towards Bakura's currant circumstances. So, he could definably help him to at least find out what and where he needed to get to. But accompanying him was something he would have to give more thought to.

He would decide later.

"Bakura, I will help you find the whereabouts of your 'Shadow Realm'. I will give you the rest of your answer at a later date." Bakura let go of a breath he wasn't even aware he was holding. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let us depart to researching together."

They sat together for several hours undisturbed in the library of the Kaiba residence. So far, their search had gotten zilch on results. Nothing, not even in the many dark magic handbooks was the Shadow Realm mentioned. Bakura added that it might be a spirit plane, and not normally accessible by demons, but Seto shot this down; reminding him that Yami had gotten into it easily enough and left a material body there.

It wasn't until Kaiba Mokuba had wandered in, that both realized how much time they had wasted looking through useless books.

Kaiba was in the middle of a thick book titled: Traveler's Guide: A map to the Known Worlds. So he set the book down, and told his younger demon he had adopted as a brother/son, to wait by the marble courtyard for his training. As the fledgling left the two, Kaiba turned back to Bakura; still buried in his search.

"You must rest if you wish to be at your best. You wouldn't want to miss anything because of fatigue, now would you?" Bakura grumbled, but agreed. He hadn't slept in two days, anyway. "You may, if you want, stay under my roof for as long as necessary."

The tanned demon snorted. "You're being unusually generous, Kaiba. I don't think you've ever offered me this much service without cost before."

"Only because I understand what it's like to loose someone so close." he replied simply. "Good evening, friend." and he was gone from the room, leaving the somewhat stunned Bakura behind to find a room to accommodate.

* * *

Back in the town of Domino, a couple of demon fledglings had been taken here to live for a short period of time, and they were all playing together outside a small, demolished building.

Catching the chunk of debris they were throwing around, one pointed up to the sky clouded with smog. "Look! It's a dragon! And four shiny people coming here!" she squealed.

"Rebecca! Get away from there! Don't attract them to us!" yelled the oldest of the group. Yes, he knew exactly who those 'shiny people' must be. Angels! "Anna! Take Hiei and hide by the radio tower! Yusuke, you go to the mall with Rebecca, and don't budge until I get there."

"But, Yoh! Where'll you be?" Rebecca demanded before Yusuke picked her up and began to run.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." The Angels were in a stone's throw now, and everyone was hidden; save Yoh.

Malik could finally see what was going on in the dead town as they drew closer to it. Tepemkau wanted to go after the running demons, but Malik left them. They weren't of any value to them anyway. "Demon scum," Jou murmured.

"Angel! Get down here!" Yoh yelled from the ground.

Meeting demons was making Yuugi a bit uncomfortable. Yeah, he knew he would have to eventually meet some anyway, but so soon seemed like they were everywhere. And he thought they could only come into existence by rejecting angel form. But there were so many...did they all reject a holy rebirth?

Tepemkau landed on the softened, but sickly earth, and flattened his gargantuan wings to allow Hiroto and Yuugi to disembark. Jou was the first to slip off and drew his small dagger usually used for cutting tough plant roots.

"Waddya want, demon?" He said 'demon' with a sharpness he only had for them. "Are you all so low you'd delay a rescue mission?!"

Yoh looked surprised when Jonouchi mentioned their objective in Domino, but blew it off. In fact, he scoffed him for it. "You've gotta be kidding me. Why would an Angel care about a missing commerade?" Jou took an angry step forwards. "Don't come any closer! I'll-I'll cut you in half if you do!" He drew his katana to reinforce his otherwise idle threat. "There's no way you're gunna get past me to my friends! Why are you really in Demon Haven, Angel?"

"I just told ya, numb-skull! What's wrong with all of you demons, don't believe we could care just because you don't?!" This time, Jou lunged at Yoh, dagger raised.

"No! Jou, don't!" Yuugi cried. He tackled the other boy to the ground before he could stab the winged 'fiend'.

This shocked Yoh even more. "C'mon! Stand up and fight me like the Angel you are! You'll have to go through me long before you even lay eyes on my friends!"

Honda until now had decided to let Jou get it out of his system before intervening. "Yeah, knock it off, Jou." He turned to the present demon. "And you, back off. We aren't looking for trouble, and I don't know what you've heard about us, but it was apparently all wrong. All we're looking to accomplish here is finding our friend, believe it or not."

Malik stepped forward off of his ka. "You keep saying that you're trying to protect your friends, while we're trying to save ours. I really don't see a reason for us to fight, do you?"

Now that the others had come into the picture, Jou started to settle down, and put his dagger back into his belt. Not that he felt any better towards demons as a whole. This one might not be so bad, but there are always exceptions to every rule. Like Suguroku had told him as a child, "They're evil for the most part.", and he stuck to that rule.

Though ruffled, Yoh put his sword away, and cooled down. "Ok, say you really are looking for your friend. Why did you pick Domino City? How did he go missing in the first place?"

Bravely, Yuugi decided to answer. "We didn't really 'pick' Domino, it was just what popped out first. And Ryou went missing after he went to save his human from, a vampire." He had almost said 'one of you', out of habit, but stopped himself. "He's been gone for quite a while now, and we've just gotten out of Heaven a while ago."

"Yes, would you happen to know of anything of an albino Angel around here? Actually, he went to New York first, but if this is 'Demon Haven', maybe you've heard something, anyway?" Honda mentioned. Yoh tried to remember anything he had heard, but drew a blank. Hiroto shrugged. "Oh well. We've still got a lot of places to hit, so it's okay. It's just, he's very close to us, especially Yuugi over there." He pointed to the shortest of them, and the spiky-haired boy blushed.

"New York has a lot of vampires, doesn't it? Try to see if you can talk to someone named Kyokae. She'd be able to help you, but it usually comes with a price tag attached." Yoh followed Honda and shrugged loosely. "Never to much, though."

Malik waved his thanks. "Thanks, friend. My name's Malik."

"Yoh."

"Nice to meet you, Yoh. Thanks again for the tip." Malik bowed, as did the rest of the Angels, and Yoh bowed humbly back. Yuugi, Malik, Honda and Jou hopped back onto Tepemkau.

"Always nice to know we're not alone being the immortals who still value friendship over anything. Good luck!" he yelled, as they took off for New York.

As they sailed over the clouded sky towards North America, Yuugi sat in silence, thinking. What would he do if they couldn't find Ryou? Would he be able to accept that he could have, could have...

He didn't want to think like that, because there was no reason to get depressed over one of many. many variables. So instead, he found his mind wandering over to one of his past lives, his first one. How he had been impartial to countless sacrifices, or what should have been called slaughters. How King Atemu (a/n: a.k.a. Yami ) had 'selflessly sacrificed himself' to seal Duel monsters forever, yet the seal never fully worked, considering kas were still around to the fullest for ages.

Then he had worked his way back to wondering about Yoh, and his being a Demon. And he recognized something. People turned Demon because they rejected angel form, but by doing so, it usually meant so they could go back to find someone. Didn't that make them in a way /better/ than Angels? Because they wouldn't let a dream, or person leave their life for good?

Yuugi glanced at Jou.

But then, they might have gone back because they wanted revenge on someone. And they would be the truly evil Demons. So everyone thought they were savage creatures just because some were? Not all Angels are saints, either. They just pass on because they don't really want to bother themselves. And those were always the worst of the population.

When the United Nations Building in New York became visible to the troop of Angels and ka, Tepemkau slowed his neck-breaking speed, and Yuugi slowed his philosophical thinking.

* * *

Ryou lay quivering on the Soul Room's floor. Now that Bakura had left for the next 'quest' thing, he found himself with lots of time on his hands.

The albino HalfAngel glanced around the fairly empty room. Not much was in here other than him. In fact, there was /nothing/ else to occupy his mind, but thinking.

Contenting himself to flop down limply on the smooth, pearl-like ground, Ryou decided to make up a story. It looked like he would have enough time...

He started to fabricate the characters. One would be young, a bit naïve. Just your basic protagonist. Short build, not the bravest person, with the exception of defending his friends. Grey/brown hair, light jeans and a loose, black shirt. No need to go over the edge... His name would be...Myoni. Yeah, that sounds good. Myoni would have a small ring of close friends, but what he didn't know...yeah! That's it! One of his friends could be a super crime-fighting, butt-kicking martial artist! But just as Ryou was about to picture this guy in his mind, he thought back to the innumerable stories with butt-kicking kids in it. He decided he would have to be more original than that...

It ended up being Myoni sent on a perilous journey for an herb he needed to for his friend's treatment. Yes, Hana, the friend, had a deadly curse set upon her. One that would eventually turn her from the path of what she had planned out, to the path of oblivion. She would wear baggy, black jeans, and a black mesh over-top covering a white sleeveless shirt. Many chains...Ryou saw many chains hanging off of her... Two piercings in her right ear. That sounded good.

"Sounds interesting, right?" he wondered aloud, to no one in particular.

Ryou spent the rest of his time expanding on this world just fabricated in his mind. Took his mind off the current circumstances, anyways.

* * *

Me: omg, I can't believe how quickly I finished that chapter! It took me, like, a whole three days! XD I'm so proud of myself! T-T

Ryou: (smiles his kawaii smile) yes, Erin-chan! You finished off with me /not/ being depressed for once! A change for the better, at least...

Chibi Myoni: ja, mina! hummm...maybe Erin-chan will prolong my life, and write my story herself... Guess it's up to the reviewers! XD

Me: by the way, I dressed Hana similar to myself. Yes, yes, I know. No imagination at all... :P see the pretty purple button? That's why I updated so fast this time...who knows how fast I'd update with many reviews... O-O


	12. Between Sariel and the Thief

Me: umm...hello there friends....

Readers: (an angry mob of squirming flesh) Raaaaaaaaaaaaa! You haven't updated for over a month! A MONTH!!!

Me: O.O eep! (runs away and hides under her bed, were the pet dustbunnies live)

'Leanne: (rolls her eyes) here we go again... (engages in a bloody battle, just barely coming out the winner, much less alive, beating the rest off with her faithful katana) sigh... (pulls her hikari out from under the bed) You do realize that you need to come out to type? (glares) I refuse to do most of the work, like you've recently been forcing onto me! Arg! Do you know how hard it is to type with a hikari snoring in your right ear?

Me: umm...

'Leanne: thought so.

Me: I'm sorry! I had to finish the last chapter of Wake Up, and I wanted it to be good! (it is, after all, my first /completed/ story on fanfiction...)

Warning: zzz.. Wait...I dun wanna wake up...zzz...

Disclaimer: (kicks Warning in the head) Wake up, baka. (glares at audience) No own. Muah ha ha!!

* * *

Tepemkau had reached just under a kilometer altitude above New York. His master, Malik, cast a slight illusion spell, only cloaking themselves to mortal eyes. He wasn't stupid; he knew that any more stealth would drain precious energy. Energy that wasn't quite as replenish-happy as it would have been in Heaven. They would need to save some for later.

Swooping down, Honda glanced from over the left wing to survey the surrounding area, and grimaced. Smog, high-rises, and hardly any green whatsoever. It was almost the opposite of their celestial terrain. Still, he could easily see why there were so many vampires here. Tonnes of dark alleyways, enough crime in the downtown areas to keep nosey people from discovering their victims' corpses, if there was one. There were probably more reasons, but the thought depressed Honda, so he changed his vision from the buildings to the early sunset.

"Well, for what it lacks in greenery, New York does have a pretty fine sunset..." Yuugi mentioned.

Jonouchi nodded. Though he did hate demons, he wasn't sure how closely related the vampires were. Shrugging, he decided that they would probably be either the same, or only a bit different. After all, vampires are created through both the lust of everlasting life, and undergoing a combination of cultural rituals, perverted to vampiric needs.

Now in close proximity to the ground, Tepemkau stopped, and flattened his wings to create ramps down. Once all the riders were off, he reverted to his smaller form. Malik had carved a miniscule rune onto Tepemkau's nape, and it allowed him to shrink to only a mere four foot-tall, winged metallic lizard.

"Good job, friend." Malik whispered to his ka. "Stay in this area, I don't know how long we will take."

Even if it meant waiting for years, Tepemkau was too blindly loyal to his master to disobey him. He bobbed his head up and down, then lumbered off, going to find some food. After all, he had been flying for over two, three days now.

Once he was gone, Malik faced the rest of his companions. "I'm going to cast another illusion spell. It'll disguise us as slightly vampiric humans."

Jou grunted his dissatisfaction with this form.

"Look, we don't have much choice. We need to get by as humans for the humans, and vampires if we run into them."

"And we can't look too old, either. All vampire elders are very well known throughout the worldwide communities. Younglings, though, are everywhere these days, because of the mass corruption that's now considered normal." Honda nearly sneered.

They all stared at him blankly.

Seeing their response, Honda grinned sheepishly. "Hey, I like that part of schooling! And anyway, as a crusader, I have to know something about what I might fight in the future, in Heaven's armies..."

"That is, if we're not expelled..." Yuugi mumbled.

They all fell silent then, deciding that they should probably be moving along if they ever wanted to attain progress in their search.

Malik began to chant, deciding the quality and length of time his enchantment would be in effect.

Soon, their appearances began to change. Skin became more gauntish, though not white, teeth were sharper, if not larger, and the robes they had on from when they left changed into different variations of the gothic style. For example; Yuugi had low-riding leather pants that had mesh inserted randomly, covering cut-out holes. His shirt came just below his ribcage, and was also black, with slitted arms. Of course, there were a lot of intricate details, but they were all along, and just spiced up the ensemble. Maybe the most noticeable change was the fact that Yuugi was also wearing makeup. Black makeup, but makeup nonetheless.

Jonouchi's hair appeared to shrink, bemusing Honda, and was also black, though if it was real, one could have easily told that it was dyed. The rest of the Angels were all different, but similar in the basic respects of the style.

Upon seeing his creation, Malik burst into fits of laughter. "First time I've ever seen Jou in makeup, and probably last time, too!" Jou glared at him, well aware of what he looked like. Malik just grinned. "Don't worry, we'll fit right in. I know the geography of this place, and believe me, there are people more gothic than we are at the moment."

Yuugi nodded. "Well, of course. This is nearly the convention center for vampires." He grinned.

Calmed down now, Malik grinned back. "And I know the perfect place to start our hunt. It's called 'Last Rebirth Nightclub. Vampires only, of course."

As the Egyptian-born Angel led the way, Yuugi sighed to himself. A vampire bar...

(Dream sequence)

Traveling trough a perpetual mist, young Nahkti feels like one would, had they just found home after searching forever. Not that he minded, it was all too cloudy anyway. He did not feel a thing.

Stopping after the fog began to disperse, the fledgling of a demon stood, and awaited the orders, expecting something to emerge from the cleared area any moment now. Whatever did would help him through this situation. Not that he was even aware of what it was, mind you.

And, true to his blind trust, a single glowing figure steps out of the swirling white. It stops in front of him, and reaches out its arms, as if to invite Nahkti into an embrace.

When its mouth opens, its voice seems like a single, beautiful, chime-like sound pouring out. It spoke words that Nahkti could, but could not, understand. Almost like the tempo of dance music; one feels the emotion, yet does not understand.

Suddenly, a leather-bound book appeared, cradled in the being's arms. It was untitled, and had such an aura that seemed to draw one in, saying 'Open me...read my secrets...all that I can tell you...'

Nahkti moves in slow motion, reaching for this intriguing object.

Before he can lay hands on it, the being smirks, and vanishes, along with the book.

(End Dream Sequence)

Bakura awoke in a cold sweat, shooting straight off his currant bed, and raised his wings defensively.

He relaxed after realizing that it was only the dream that woke him up.

Checking the one-way window next to his bed, he decides that it is approximately midnight, and time to rise.

Stepping into his borrowed silk robe and moving towards the door, Bakura feels an odd pang, like he had misplaced something important. Waving it off, he exits the room and flies towards the library for more research.

What he didn't see was the leather-bound book that had appeared by the foot of his bed.

The Demon King stood in the centre of a marble courtyard, studying any improvement made in his adopted brother's flight patterns.

"No, try to keep your wings suppressed at ALL times when diving! Like this..." Seto rises to the air about sixty feet, and nose-dives, skimming the floor, and then landing.

The black-haired demon nods apprehensively, trying to impress his older peer. Waiting until the next command to fly, Mokuba shoots up like he had learned week prior, and attempts the same sharp dive Seto had demonstrated.

Though he kept his wings stilled, his mind was on other things, and so he forgot to keep his arms slack.

"No, no! Arg!" Seto's demonic slits for pupils dilate, showing his frustration. Mokuba automatically lands, and apologizes. Seto just sighs. "Nevermind, you have improved greatly. We will be moving on tomorrow, okay?"

A relieved, yet excited grin graces the youngling's face. "Okay, big brother!" Mokuba bows his head, a standard custom, and flies off to explore more of the grounds.

"Perhaps I should return to my guest." Seto mutters under his breath. A wave of sudden tiredness washed over him, and so he decides to teleport. Losing a small mount of energy won't matter much, considering it will replenish quickly.

Seto finds Bakura awake, and sitting at the same reclining chair he was last night. "Hey, I thought I told you to get some rest, Bakura!"

"I did..." His usual cynical voice trailed off. Flipping the page he had just skimmed over, Bakura looked up. "...actually. But, I must admit, being in a different ring of Hell has given me some pretty interesting dreams." Bakura shrugged, and seemed to go back to researching.

Seto blinked. 'What...it should make no difference. Demons hardly dream regardless...' He was starting to get somewhat anxious. "Bakura...what did you dream of, exactly?" Seto was trying, and failing, to sound casual.

The albino looked up inquisitively. "I remember walking through lots of white as a fledgling. Someone appeared, showed me a book, and then I woke up." Seto frowned. "Don't worry about it. Really, it was nothing."

"Want to bet...?" Seto muttered under his breath. "Show me your room." Bakura sighed, put down his book, and began to lead the way back to his chambers.

"Don't know why it matters...I've had plenty of odd dreams since Kyokae sent me on all of these different tests."

"Idiot! You must have absolutely no brains in your head, after all! You never thought that maybe there was a /reason/ you started to dream after that??" Kaiba snorts. "A quick way to communicate, if you ask me. It's a good thing I never used it! You would have just waved it off!" He continued to rant, ignoring the peevish glares he was receiving, before remembering something. "Wait a sec...what did you say that thing looked like? The one that showed you the book..."

Bakura leered at him. /Now/ he remembers why he didn't visit Seto often. He was always ranting about something or other, then saying things as if nothing had happened. Never the less, Bakura gives him the description, mentioning that it kind of reminded him of an Angel, the way it shone.

They were in the same hall that housed Bakura's room. Approaching the door, Seto mulled it all over. An Angel...speaking to a Demon through their dreams? Highly unlikely. Demons were 'not worth lowering themselves to mingle with', or so the Angels thought. So one that communicates with both races...? No one but Lucifer, the fallen would...or is there? By the time Bakura swung open the door, Seto had a good estimate who this 'Angel' was.

Glancing in, Bakura finally noticed the book that was left behind when he had left for the library. "This is..what the Hell?!" He flew over, leaving Seto to follow him in. Picking up the book, he recognized the feel of it, the same as in the dream.

"It was Sariel. He was the one that gave you that book."

Bakura tore his eyes from the cover, and stared at Kaiba. "Sariel? The Demon?"

"No, Sariel the Angel." The brunette closed his weary eyes as he recalled history. "Sariel was a double agent between Heaven and Hell. You saw the Angelic Sariel in your dream... Which makes things interesting... Did he want you to realize who he was? Or...?" By now, Seto was talking more to himself than to Bakura. "Open the book, Bakura."

Dismissing the fact that it was an order, Bakura did so.

The cover flew open as soon as Bakura touched the heavy clasp. The pages inside fluttered violently, until it reached nearly the end of the book. It landed on a yellowed and worn page titled: The Shadow Plane.

Bakura gaped. "This is it! I'm sure of it!" Excited, Bakura felt his heart pounding faster and faster in anticipation.

"Wait! We don't even know why you have Sariel's book! It could be anything! Let us analyze this first, Bakura!" Seto grabs his friend's arm, and pulls him back.

"Let go of me, Kaiba." The tone was deadly serious. So much, that it caused Seto to instinctually back off, like getting out of the way of a Demon and their prey. "You said you understood. I think you may have miscalculated, if you believed yourself." Without waiting for a response, Bakura begins to read the page's contents out loud in Demonic.

Through the ensorcelled words, a white wind starts to grow from Bakura's feet. The runes drawn onto the page glow then disappear after they are read, until there were no more on the page. By then, the wind had grown to encase almost all of Bakura's body.

All Kaiba could do was stare in shock. His stony blue eyes locked with Bakura's own crimson, reminding him to keep on going. Pretending that nothing had happened, and someday, Seto might believe himself. Someday.

So was the power of the Shadow Realm.

Walking across the so-called ground, Yami wondered if it went on forever. Knowing his luck, it probably did. Damn it. Though, even if his body was left in the material world, and the shadows of this place of his creation did limit his powers immensely, he still had magick. Maybe not as much, but he had some.

That was hopefully all he needed.

But still, the vampire hadn't fed in over a month. That is, if time passed in the same manner as it did on Earth, but he doubted it. Still, it would drive him into berserk soon. Without any blood to sustain his diet-dependant undead soul, he would either go insane, or die. Whichever came first.

But when a vampire is driven into berserk, things start to happen. Things that might help Yami exit this Hellhole he'd dug himself into. Though he probably had created someway out, he might never remember in time.

It had been a while ago since Yami discovered Ryou's empty body. In desperation, he had tried to feed off of it, but discovered that not even the power of the Shadow Realm would allow contact between flesh and soul. He had left in frustration, and now had no idea where he was, and if he had even moved.

But he had experienced enough waiting in his life to be able to wait forever. He would last a bit longer.

* * *

Me: yes, I do realize that the length of that chapter was nothing in comparison to the amount of time I took to update, but please find it in your hearts to forgive me! ;-;

'Leanne: -.- get over it.

Ryou: hey! ;-; I didn't get a part in this chapter!

Bakura: nya ha! That's because mine was more important then your was. Nya... :P

Ryou: (eye twitches then gets into melee combat with Bakura, rendering them useless for the authoress to use as muses)

Me: gah! First that, and now this?? ;' ( I'm left to do the ending statement. Oh well

R/R, mina-sama! :D Ja!


	13. Awakening of Aki

Me: hey there, all you wonderful readers/reviewers! So sorry about the time gap! (bows repeatedly) I had exams, and auditions and tonnes of stuff to do that had priority over typing only because mom says so. ;-; My life sucks. 

'Leanne: Just be thankful I'm in a good mood, and not about to whine again about being forced to do the typing and such... (regardless, she goes off to pout and whine)

Me: (ignores her yami)

Warning: huh...that is different. This is a relatively sane author's note. And short, too! Greeat...that means Erin-chan'll have more time to work on the actual chappie:D Ooo...look out for more OOC Yami, possibly... -.-

Disclaimer: Erin-chan has no ownership of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Hey, I think that's the first time in a while since I said it like that! Without weird inserts and the like:D

Me: hey! Roll with it! It might mean the beginning of a new era in the writings of Erin-chan...ooo...

Thanks to all of the wonderful reviewers last time! It's because of you that I haven't decided to roll over and take both my stories and I out in a bizarre murder/suicide! Domo arigatou! ; )

* * *

Myoni had finished his journey. Ryou had become bored yet again. 

Sigh.

"I wish ... I could create longer stories and the like..." The HalfAngel rolled over onto his side. Lying on his back all the time was starting to irritate the wound the Yami and left there. "Would make this time pass quicker..." But Ryou did indeed have too much to think about. For example: all of the memories he had received from his apparent Egyptian past. This was the first time he had time to think about them since he escaped from Yami's prison, really.

That, and the story told by the shadows still lurked in the nooks and crannies of his mind. Somehow, Ryou couldn't get over the fact that Bakura had once been a ruthless criminal. And those two murdered men...was that what had condemned his soul, even before the trial of Heaven?

Even while mulling these thoughts over in his head, Ryou's eyes wandered elsewhere, resting on the sword Bakura had brought into the Soul Room upon his arrival. Still thinking about the memories, he found himself picking himself up off the floor, and approaching it.

"Unusual..." the albino mumbled to himself, after inspection. "This sword is totally blunt; the edges have been eroded off..."

It was true. The Sword of Aki had no sharp edges. And when Ryou took himself from his thoughts to focus on the item, he decided to pick it up. In doing so, it instigated two things. One, it seared right across Ryou's palm, scalding it with a rune of some sort. Because of this, he had peeled back off of it, and missed the next occurrence. It had transformed into a different kind of metal. However, the sword had disappeared before Ryou could even notice.

He bit his lip until it bled, trying to distract himself from the pain. Ryou could not focus nearly enough healing energy now. Withering on the floor, he clutched his burned hand and waited for the pain to subside, which did soon after.

Ryou took a strained intake of breath and let his arm fall limp to the floor. His hand bore the rune of Death.

* * *

Bakura stood perfectly still for the first minute or so in the Shadow Realm, anticipating everything, and yet, nothing. Truer to the latter, the Demon found nothing unusual about the place, if one didn't include the fact that all he could see was himself, the book, and black. Black skies, black ground, a black horizon. It really would have been quite depressing to someone so used to light. Bakura, however, was not, and so it didn't matter to him. Actually, he had his tanned demon body back, so that must mean that he was solid again. Good thing, too. That whole 'soul' Bakura was starting to creep him out. 

He took his first, cautious step forward. Seeing that again, nothing happened, he gritted his teeth, and took off, flying straight ahead. After all, if direction is indistinguishable from itself, then it didn't really matter what direction he chose. Perhaps that was one of the properties of this 'Shadow Plane'.

Though he flew at near mach speed, Bakura made it a point to keep his eye out for any sign of white. Ryou's hair, and its perfect snowy white, would stand out against the endless Black better than Bakura did himself. And considering that he had just basically entered a plane he knew virtually nothing about, through a book given to him from Sariel, both the Angel, and Demon of Death and the like, any kind of help was welcomed, even if Bakura would never admit to it himself.

So, he flew and flew, until his leather wings had begun to ache unbearably. Up until that point, Bakura had seen no Ryou, and for that matter, no sign that he had even been moving at all. It was this that allowed his mind peace without regret as he stopped to rest. Bakura figured that wasting precious energy for no particular reason was not a bright thing to do. Especially because he was not sure how quickly his physical energy would replenish here.

Bakura wasn't really sure of anything anymore, to tell the truth.

The stability of his and Ryou's relationship relied solidly on some faint remembrance both had briefly experienced when they first met. Though the feeling was uncanny, Bakura was having second thoughts. They had occurred to him after experiencing some of his apparent past, and running into that strange Ryou-clone.

Sure, Bakura had some memories of his past, but what was there was either trivial or still shrouded in confusion and uncertainty. When Ryou had called him by his Egyptian name for the first time, something had clicked inside of him. Whatever that feeling was, Bakura hadn't a clue on what it was, or symbolized.

What he didn't know was that it was the feeling of regret.

Bakura knew that he loved Ryou. He really did. But even though he felt like he wouldn't care if the world collapsed as long as Ryou was okay, something had crept into the back of his mind. It was a question that had been left unanswered for a while. Why did Ryou mean so much to him? They just met not over a month ago, but it felt like they had been together for years, already. And if Ryou really was from his Egyptian past, what did that mean to him, and why couldn't he remembered what had happened? But then, why couldn't Ryou remember either? As in, he had made no sign that he had known any more than Bakura did when they met, and from there on in, so he assumed that their state was the same.

It was about then that the Sword of Aki started to materialize in front of the Demon. Slowing, it came together as swirling blobs of light, and slowly changed into what Bakura had accidentally removed from the Temple of Ashita from his first quest.

At first, Bakura didn't notice it, ironically, too lost in his thoughts of the past. But after it had completely re-made itself, it had attracted Bakura's full attention.

'Eh...?" 'What's this doing here...?' he thought to himself. Bakura stood up to walk over to the hovering sword. It, too, stood out brilliantly against the Blackness. He had left it with Ryou in their Soul Room, so why had it chose to come with him, even into the Shadow Realm? So, Bakura picked it up and spun it around in his fingers, much like a baton. The thing really was a hunk of useless metal, but then, he already knew that the edges were gone from rotting in that pitiful excuse for a temple...

However, Bakura never noticed that the symbol of Death was missing from the hilt. It was usually things like this that the ex-thief would notice, but today, Bakura had decided not to be like his Egyptian self for the sake of his remaining sanity.

As he ran his fingers up and down the broken blade, a slight lustre began to cultivate where he had touched. Finding this interesting, Bakura continued until the entire sword, hilt and all, was shining like a lantern. And indeed, it had lit up the Shadow Realm. Now, instead of seemingly endless Black, there was colour, a dirt path, and two, gigantic, humanoid-like shadows.

"And in such a short time, we have another visitor, Azunith. Aren't we luck-" Suddenly, the first shadow person stopped in mid-sentence as it appeared to notice the change of scenery and the person's identity just now.

"You! How dare you summon the nerves to visit us here in our final resting place!"

Bakura looked casually up at them, still spinning the Sword of Aki in his right hand. "You sound vaguely familiar. Have I met you before?" The coolness of his tone had been meant to provoke them, and it did its job well.

"Insults upon insults!"

"You dare not remember us! The ones you killed so eagerly and mercilessly!"

The Demon let the thought roll around in his mind for a bit, then raised his finger to indicate his remembrance. "Ah, yes. You're the rats that got me caught that one time while I was just a runt, right?" His crimson eyes flashed. "I gave you the ending you deserved. You earned your way even past Hell, and blame it on me! You two are lower than the rubble of the desert bedrock!"

To prove his point, he raised his dull, yet weapon of choice for the moment. "And I will kill you again if I must!"

He leapt at them, with both hands on the battered sword. They let loose a deafening screech, and split up, each going in the opposite direction.

"Why don't you just stay still so I don't have to waste more energy than I need to!" the only material being screamed. All that was received was a hiss from the one that was called Azunith, and them moving even faster. "Fine..." Bakura stopped completely. "Have it your way..." Silently, he prayed to himself and any higher being that was listening that this sorry excuse for a sword had some use in it left.

Slowly, he raised the blade so it was pointing to where the heart would have been on one confused shadow. At first, nothing appeared to happen, until Bakura felt a slight pulsating in that arm. The sword wanted him to attack for it.

"Sure thing..." he muttered under his breath. He smirked before leaping at it again, this time letting the sword do the work. And, true to what he had expected, the sword appeared to move on its own, and regardless of its dull edge, it had slashed a sizable gash in the shadow's chest.

The victim screeched once more, before seemingly evaporating into the 'air' of the Shadow Realm. The other made a motion that suggested that it had glanced at its fell brother, and then back at Bakura. "You...will not make it out of here alive, you know. It doesn't matter whether we both die again or not. This place will always be where our souls make it back t-!"

The Sword of Aki obviously thought little of this little departing message, as it ripped through its second soul for the night.

Bakura spat on the ground, which he discovered to be frozen indeed, and sheathed the now-sentient sword in his belt. "Yeah, yeah...we'll see."

Shortly after the shadow episode, Bakura had continued on the path laid out before him and eventually spotted white on the horizon. Upon flying closer, it did indeed appear to be Ryou's wingless, and soulless, body.

Despite Bakura already aware of the fact that Ryou had no wings now, he could still feel a rush of anger in his veins. If Bakura ever saw Yami again... Regardless of what he thought of his ex-friend now, the faerie shell that Kyokae had granted him was taken out of his belt pocket, and readied.

Muttering lowly into it, Bakura calmly stated that he was done, then sat and waited. He cradled Ryou's cold body like he had when Bakura had first met the Angel. Because of the time lapse between the material plane, the Shadow Realm, and Kyokae's demi-plane, there would be no telling when she would take him out of here.

The book that had travelled with him remained on the floor, now that its currant possessor's arms were occupied for the moment. Left unnoticed, the page regarding the Shadow Realm slowly shone for the very last time, then crumbled into a fine dust. Its existence had been fulfilled.

It was an 'hour' later when both the body of Ryou and Bakura where salvaged from the Shadow Realm by Kyokae. If only they had stayed just a moment longer, they would have encountered someone Bakura would have loved to lay eyes on with this new sword of his.

Yami's soul had dragged itself from where the Shadow's manifestation of the Kame Game Shop had been to where he had spotted something around here. He had arrived just in time to see the bodies disappearing.

"..." He was at a loss for words for the first time in his life. Even if no one else in the world knew about the Shadow Realm, Yami most definitely did, and what he knew did not sit well with him at all.

Above all else, the Shadow Realm required balance. A soul for a body, and right now, it had just been put out of balance. When Ryou left his body here to return to Bakura's mind, the caster, Yami, had been ripped from his own body, and thrown in here to keep balance. Bakura balanced himself out by having both a body and a soul. But now...there was only one mind left without a body...

The pain was insufferable, as the Shadow Plane made its final decision. Yami, the prince of the undead, was ripped apart as a sacrifice to his own craft.

* * *

Bakura had not appeared on the material plane after Kyokae had summoned him. No, instead, he was taken right into the goddess's own home, her own plane. 

She sat awaiting, regal upon the throne of what seemed like the Demon's judgement. "Now, Nahkti-ahmose-kha'y-bakura. You have brought me both the Sheath of Mortality, and now your lover's shell." Her smile was dark and eerie, and Bakura did not like it at all. "As you did before, with the item before, please give his body to me for-"

Bakura shot up from the floor, which he wasn't even aware that he had been sitting down on. "Absolutely not! How dare you even ask something of that from me? After everything you know I...he's been through!"

She glared coolly at him. "You do not posses nearly enough power to restore 'Ryou' to his body. It would be no different to you. He would remain outside of his body, and inside your mind." Bakura paled, and felt his hand grow limp, then tightened it again, realizing it was the one holding Ryou to him.

"But! There must be a way! You! You must have enough! Please..." He lowered his head, as to hide his anguish from her. "Please...save him...do something..." Bakura fell to his knees, but refused to wipe the tears from rolling down his cheeks for fear of appearing vulnerable.

"...You did not even let me finish. There was a reason why I wanted to keep his body with me for now. I said that I'd help you, and I do not go back on my word. Never." Kyokae threw one of her legs over the other, and placed both arms on the outstretched throne. "I can reverse Yami's spell, but it will be difficult, even for me. He was preparing it for quite some time, and many of the material components are so obscure, it could take days to collect them all, if you knew where they all where. However, all I need to avoid this process of working it in reverse, is a piece of the caster."

"A...piece...?" Bakura's voice went hoarse, as he imagined himself finding Yami's dead body and taking back the head, bloody and all.

"Yes...and even a lock of his hair would do." Bakura sighed in relief. "That will be your third quest."

This time, however, she needn't rise from her seat as the blue flames licked through the air.

'What destroys thy soul,  
But tears his own?  
Glowing with hatred And weeping in bloodshed'

"What...is that supposed to mean?" Bakura spat. He was back from his shock, now that he realized what was happening. He hardly had time to see Kyokae's expression before he was plane hopped, though somewhat violently, back to the material plane.

* * *

Me: yes….longer than I expected the time it took to finish this. Speak like Yoda I do. Yup yup. 

'Leanne: Shoooo. Now that it's over, you'll do the rest of the typing right: )

Me: You have high hopes.

'Leanne: ;-; yes…far too high…

chibiRyou: ja ne, mina-san! Hit the pretty purple button if you dun want Kyokae to be mean to me…yes, I have been threatened…


End file.
